TIGERS OF THE DEEP 



decided that the important thing to do was to gain time 

 and get out of the water at the first opportunity. 



When they had regained their Aqualungs they went 

 down to one hundred and sixty feet, into what Cousteau 

 describes as ''the sharks' merry-go-round", photograph- 

 ing the creatures and their surroundings. Below them 

 sharks were wandering over the sand shoal. Above them, 

 silhouetted against the shining surface, the long dark 

 shadows of the sharks moved menacingly. Watching the 

 ferocious beasts swimming around his naked companions, 

 who now included Dumas (whose ankles were actually 

 sniffed at by an enormous shark before Cousteau hooted 

 loudly through his mouthpiece and drove it away) 

 Cousteau reflected on the strange scene, and could only 

 conclude — in the words of his article — that they were 

 all mad. 



His final conclusion on the matter was that sharks are 

 cowards — ferocious cowards, but still cowards — and that 

 they look upon the diver as a strange bubble-blowing 

 fish with two tails — "worth investigating but not quite 

 safe to charge". 



Cornel Lumiere, an explorer, both of the world's land 

 and sea surfaces and of the under-waters as a diver and 

 swimmer, regards sharks as harmless unless attacked. In 

 his book Beneath the Seven Seas"^ he says : "Once I belonged 

 to the timids who visualize a shark stuffed with human 

 arms and legs, every time they see a few feet of ocean. 

 It took a little time and some special eflfort, but I now 

 share the ranks of those who maintain that it is a good 

 deal safer to play round with a shark under water than 

 with a blonde on Broadway." He adds that if you leave a 

 shark alone he will leave you alone, and adds : "Read 

 Hass, Craig, Cousteau and they will tell you, unless you 

 provide specific attractions for the shark, he will not 

 come near you." 



Lumiere says that "of some forty varieties of sharks, 



♦Hutchinson & Co. Ltd., 1956. 



