THE SHARK. 37 



temper, dogged perseverance, and exceptional power of jaw. 

 The lion and tiger may mangle, the crocodile may lacerate, 

 the bulldog may hold fast the shark alone of living creatures 

 possesses the power of cleanly nipping off a human limb at a 

 bite. One ill service nature has done the shark, namely, 

 that of placing a triangular fin on his back, which acts as a 

 danger signal and gives warning of his approach. Happily 

 the shark has not been gifted with sufficient sagacity to be 

 aware of this peculiarity, for had he been so he would 

 unquestionably have abandoned his habit of swimming 

 close to the surface of the water, and would in that case have 

 been enabled to approach his victim unobserved. The shark 

 is a slow swimmer for his size and strength. Byron observes, 

 " As darts the dolphin from the shark," but Byron was a 

 poet, and does not appear to have been a close observer of 

 the habits of the inhabitants of the water ; or he would have 

 known that a shark would have no more chance of catching 

 a dolphin than a sheep would of overhauling a hare. 

 A shark will keep up with a sailing ship, but it is as much 

 as it can do to follow in the wake of a fast steamer, and a 

 torpedo boat would be able to give it points. 



As it is a source of wonder how the flea manages to exist 

 in the sand, where his chances of obtaining a meal may not 

 occur once in a lifetime, so naturalists are greatly puzzled 

 how the shark maintains himself. The ocean is wide, and 

 the number of men who fall overboard small indeed in 

 comparison to its area. The vast proportion of sharks, 

 then, must go through their lives without a remote chance 

 of obtaining a meal at the expense of the human kind. 

 There is no ground for the supposition that the shark can 

 exist upon air. He is not, like the whale, provided with an 



