Class IV. WHITE SHARK, 107 



reftored again to their families, friends, and conn- 

 try. To convince them at left that they mould 

 not re-animate their bodies, he ordered one of 

 their corpfes to be tied by the heels to a rope, and 

 lowered into the fea, and though it was drawn up 

 again as faft as the united force of the crew could 

 be exerted, yet in that fhort fpace the fharks had 

 devoured every part but the feet, which were fecu- 

 red at the end of the cord. 



Swimmers very often perifh by them ; fome- 

 times they lofe an arm or leg, and fometimes are 

 bit quite afunder, ferving but for two morfels for 

 this ravenous animal : a melancholy tale of this 

 kind is related in a Weft India ballad, preferved in 

 Doctor Percy's Reliques of ancient Englijh Poetry *1 



The mouth of this fifh is furnifhed with (fome- 

 times) a fixfold row of teeth, flat, triangular, 

 exceedingly fharp at their edges, and finely fer- 

 rated. We have one that is rather more than an 

 inch and an half long. Grew f fays, that thofe in 

 the jaws of a mark two yards in length, are not 

 half an inch, fo that the fifh to which mine belong- 

 ed muft have been fix yards long, provided the 

 teeth and body keep pace in their growth J. 



This dreadful apparatus, when the Mm is in a 



? Vol I. 331. 

 f Rarities y 91. 



\ Fcflil teeth of this fifh are very frequent in Malta, Tome 

 of which are four inches long. 



ftate 



