306 CARTILAGINEI. SQUALID.E. 



ber of its component species, belong the giants 

 of the race, the Basking Shark {Selachus maximus), 

 thirty-six feet in length, the Blue Shark {Car- 

 charias glaucus), the Fox Shark {Cvulpes), and 

 the dreaded White Shark (C vulgaris). 



Many thrilling anecdotes of the fatal voracity 

 of this last named monster of the deep are on 

 record. One of these is recorded by a painting 

 in Christ's Hospital, London. The late Sir 

 Brooke Watson was swimming at a little dis- 

 tance from a ship, when he saw a Shark making 

 towards him. Struck with terror at its approach, 

 he cried out for assistance. A rope was imme- 

 diately thrown to him ; but even while the men 

 were in the act of drawing him up the ship's 

 side, the ferocious creature darted after him, and 

 at a single snap, tore off his leg. 



The horrors inflicted on the miserable sufferers 

 by the shameful traffic in men, during the transit 

 across the Atlantic, are heightened by these 

 ferocious animals. Their instinct apprises them 

 of the probability of prey ; the air, tainted with 

 the effluvia of a multitude of human beings 

 crowded together in a tropical climate, probably 

 awakening their vigilance and whetting their 

 appetite. It is affirmed that numbers of Sharks 

 almost invariably attend every slave-ship through- 

 out her voyage, crowding around her stern, await- 

 ing with eager expectation the unceremonious 

 committal to the deep of the numerous wretches 

 who fall victims to suffocation, disease, or de- 

 spair. 



" Here dwells the direful Shark. Lured by the scent 

 Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death, 

 Behold ! he rushing cuts the briny flood, 

 Swift as the gale can bear the ship along ; 



