The Old Weevils 



reconstructing that awful implement of 

 destruction ! 



The monster thus equipped as a prince of 

 death belonged to the family of the Squali. 

 Paleontology calls him Carcharodon mega- 

 lodon. Our modern Shark, the terror of 

 the seas, gives an approximate idea of him, 

 in so far as a dwarf can give an idea of a 

 giant. 



Other Squali, all ferocious gluttons, 

 abound within the same stone. It contains 

 Oxyrhinae (O. xyphodon, Agass.), whose 

 jaws are furnished with curved and toothed 

 Malay creeses; Lamiae (L. denticulata, 

 Agass.), whose mouths bristle with sharp, 

 flexuous daggers, flat on one side, convex on 

 the other; and Notidani (N. primi genius, 

 Agass.), whose sunken teeth are crowned 

 with radiating indentations. 



This dental arsenal, bearing eloquent wit- 

 ness to bygone massacres, can hold its own 

 with the Nimes Crocodile, the Marseilles 

 Diana or the Vaison Horse. With its pan- 

 oply of carnage, it tells me how extermina- 

 tion came at all times to prune the excess 

 of life; it says: 



9 



