SHANNON 



5337 



SHARK 



and has broad, well-lighted streets, hospitals, 

 schools, clubhouses, theaters and other modern 

 structures. A fine esplanade, or bund, skirts 

 the river bank, and an attractive park lies op- 

 posite. By means of sanitary improvements 

 the naturally unhealthful site has been ren- 

 dered safe for foreign residents. 



The city is the eastern terminal of the Hang- 

 chow and the Nanking railroads, and its spa- 

 cious harbor is visited by steamships from 

 various parts of the world. At the outbreak of 

 the War of the Nations in 1914 over 20,000 

 vessels were entering and clearing the port 

 annually, and the total yearly value of imports 

 and exports combined was nearly $270,000,000. 

 The city has warehouses, shipyards, cotton, 

 silk, flour and paper mills, packing houses and 

 other manufacturing establishments. It is an 

 important Chinese publishing center; fifty Chi- 

 nese newspapers are published here. Foreign- 

 ers are under the civil, criminal and political 

 jurisdiction of their own consuls, but the courts 

 of Great Britain are open to citizens of any 

 nationality. The American concession has been 

 incorporated with that of Great Britain. In 

 1910 the population numbered 13,436 foreigners 

 and 413,313 natives, the largest groups of for- 

 eigners numbering as follows: 4,465 British, 

 3,361 Japanese, 941 Americans, 811 Germans 

 and 330 French. In 1912 the population was 

 estimated to be 651,000. 



SHANNON, shan'un, the principal river of 

 Ireland and of the United Kingdom, flows 254 

 miles through a country famous in literature. 

 It rises at the base of Mount Cuilcagh, in 

 County Cavan, and flows in a southwesterly 

 direction through a series of beautiful lakes, or 

 loughs, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean be- 

 tween Loop and Kerry headlands. Its main 

 tributaries are the Fergus, Mulkear, Liffey 

 and Deel, and in County Lanford it is joined 

 by the Royal Canal. Killaloe, Castleconnel, 

 Athlone and Carrick-on-Shannon are favorite 

 places for sportsmen, as the salmon fishing is 

 famous, and in the loughs trout are found. In 

 the last sixty miles of its course the river be- 

 comes a tidal estuary, and at Limerick it is 

 thirteen miles wide, making the city the most 

 important port on the west coast. Large ships 

 ascend the stream to Limerick, small ones to 

 Athlone. Light-draft boats, by means of sev- 

 eral short canals, can sail upstream to the head 

 of Lough Allen, which is near the source of the 

 river. 



SHARK, a group of large, flesh-eating, deep- 

 sea fish, ranked among the most voracious of 



marine animals. They are found in all parts 

 of the ocean, but are most abundant in warm 

 regions. Their rounded, tapering bodies, which 

 sometimes reach a length of forty feet or more, 

 have no scales, but are covered with rough, 



FORM OF THE SHARK 



horny skin, commercially called shagreen. This 

 is sometimes used in place of sandpaper for 

 polishing wood of fine grain. The mouth, be- 

 cause of the elongated snout, is on the under 

 side of the head, and the animal must turn 

 nearly upon its back when it bites its victim. 

 In some species there are several rows of long, 

 sharp teeth, all but one of which are folded 

 back on the jaws, and as each set wears out, 

 another grows to take its place. Other species 

 have broad, flat teeth, and in a few varieties 

 they are small. The gills of sharks communi- 

 cate with the surface by several openings, and 

 these are on the sides of the body. The tail 

 is generally unequally notched. 



Sharks are rapid swimmers, and frequently 

 follow vessels for days at a time to secure food 

 and waste matter thrown from them. They 

 devour small fish of all kinds and do con- 

 siderable damage to the food-fish supply. The 

 largest species is the whale shark, often over 

 fifty feet long. Next in size is the harmless 

 basking shark, found chiefly in the Arctic 

 Ocean and so-called because it is known to 

 bask in the sun on the surface of the water. 

 One of the best-known species is the white 

 shark, a man-eater living in tropical seas and 

 sometimes found off the southern coasts of the 

 United States. The blue shark, named from its 

 color, also preys on man; it is a gluttonous fish 

 which often follows its prey into the nets of 

 fishermen. 



Some of the sharks are called hammerheads 

 because the head is shaped like a hammer, with 

 the eyes at either end. Among many other 

 species are the dusky, porbeagle, spinous, angel 

 and dog sharks. 



Shark Fishing. On Lapland and Norwegian 

 coasts, as well as- those of China, India and 

 Africa, shark fishing is an important industry, 

 but it has not as yet been developed in the 

 United States. In Norwegian waters sharks are 

 caught about 150 miles from land. Where the 

 fishing boat is stationed a barrel pierced with 



