206 



takable blow, and on looking round he saw the fin of a shark 

 descending into the wave. The shark soon reappeared along-side 

 the boat and gave evidence of a hostile intention, which much 

 alarmed Scovell, who endeavored to drive off his assailant by 

 blows with his oar, but the shark returned again and again to the 

 charge. Scovell now in great alarm and trepidation, began to 

 pull vigorously for the nearest landing, (distant about half a 

 mile,) the shark following and making repeated blows at the 

 boat with his tail. On reaching the shore he jumped out of 

 the boat and ran up the beach to high-water mark, when he 

 turned round and perceived that the returning surge of the surf 

 had thrown both boat and shark up high on shore. It being ebb 

 lide, Scovell, by means of an oar, had little difficulty in keeping 

 his antagonist on terra firma, where he now became the assailant, 

 and by administering sundry blows on the head of the shark he 

 soon succeeded in vanquishing his daring antagonist. 



Scovell had been baling out his boat, which was leaky, a short 

 time previous to the first attack of the shark, and as the water 

 thrown out was discolored by the blood from dead fish lying in 

 the bottom of the boat, it is probable that this was the incentive 

 that produced so bold and audacious an attack. 



On examining this fish, I found it to be an individual belonging 

 to the genus Carcharias^ and the species C. vulpes^ known as 

 the Fox shark, or Thresher. It measured, in a straight line, 

 fourteen feet, and in the curve fifteen feet in length. 



This animal is occasionally seen in our Bay, but I have not 

 heard of any other such daring attack being experienced from 

 them by our fishermen. The stomach of this shark, when 

 opened, was found empty. 



Questions naturally are suggested, from the two captures hap- 

 pening so near each other in point of time. — Are we indebted to 

 the same cause for these visits ? Do these animals roam and act 

 in concert .' 



Dr. Storer remarked, that from the great size of the fish 

 it might possibly be the Squalus Elcphas Lesueur, the Sela- 

 chus Maximus L., of which one was exhibited in Boston 

 some years since. The drawings, however, do not agree 

 with his published figure of that species. 



