THE SHARK. 



T)HILOSOPHERS, although as a rule men of exceed- 

 JT ingly positive opinions, wholly averse to confess their 

 ignorance upon any point whatever, have failed signally in 

 arriving at any satisfactory conclusion as to the advantage 

 of the shark in the general scheme of nature. It has been 

 suggested that it was created specially for the repression 

 of conceit in man, -and to show him that he was not, 

 as he might otherwise have supposed, the undoubted 

 lord of the inhabitants of the water as of the dwellers upon 

 earth. Given special advantages such as that of holding 

 the end of a stout rope, at the other extremity of which is a 

 hook fixed in a shark's mouth man may, with the assistance 

 of a number of his fellows, have the best of the shark. But 

 alone, and in the water, the advantage is wholly and absolutely 

 the other way, and the strongest swimmer and the bravest 

 heart fail when the tyrant of the sea seeks to make his 

 acquaintance. It is true that reports have been current 

 that there are natives of the islands of Southern Seas, who, 

 armed with a knife, fear not to go out and give battle to the 

 shark in its own element, but these tales must be accepted 

 with caution, and are akin to the many apparently authentic 

 narratives of the appearance of the sea-serpent. 



The shark is a creature gifted with great strength, a savage 

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