TIGERS OF THE DEEP 



are nurse sharks?" These are the dogfishes — sharks 

 quite distinct from the white shark, described earher by 

 Lumiere as being the only dangerous variety. He answers 

 his own question in these words: "Two young, but ex- 

 perienced, divers in Puerto Rico required a combined 

 score of twenty-five stitches to close up wounds inflicted 

 upon them by a shark less than five feet long. The little 

 nurse shark weighed only 35 lb." Nurse sharks (or dog- 

 fishes) are among the most abundant sharks found in 

 shore-waters. 



John Sweeney in Skin Diving and Exploring Underwater'^^ 

 attributes all danger from sharks to fear. He says (p. 123) : 

 'Tear of the unknown, the dark muddy depths, the black 

 inside of a wreck, the creepy light under a wharf, or the 

 ghoulish arena of lake water, must be recognized for 

 what it is and cast aside." He declares that "many 

 divers, even with years of experience, still fear sharks. 

 This is principally because they have read fanciful books 

 and articles by writers who have never had an encounter 

 with a shark". 



Some might query Mr. Sweeney's statement and point 

 out that most divers would be inclined to trust their own 

 personal knowledge of sharks in preference to any gained 

 from fanciful books and articles. 



Mr. Sweeney, in the same page, makes what is 

 probably the most extraordinary statement ever made by 

 a writer on the world's oceans. He says: "There is 

 nothing to harm you under the surface of the sea. You 

 take more chances on a Sunday-afternoon drive in your 

 car than you do swimming leisurely underwater." Some 

 of us will still hold to our opinions that men like Cous- 

 teau, Lumiere, Hass, Drach, Dumas and Doukan — to 

 mention only a few of the fishmen — need more courage 

 than Sunday-afternoon car drivers. 



Marcel Isy-Schwart, an undersea explorer who has 

 killed hundreds of ferocious sea creatures, says in Hunting 



♦Frederick Muller Ltd., 1956, 



207 



