104 '^^^ Shark 



inheriting their wisdom, but, alas ! how many of us, 

 partially instructed or careless of learning, and devoid 

 of that most uncommon of all qualities, common-sense, 

 find that we hold in mortmain an awful legacy of 

 superstition and cruelty that has come down to us 

 untinctured by any spirit of love, of mercy, or of 

 progress ! So these sailors do really believe that the 

 presence of that Shark means that one of them will 

 presently fall sick and die, or that one of them will fall 

 overboard and be devoured, and that the Shark knows 

 this, and has come purposely from he knows not what 

 part of the ocean for this terrible bequest. And one of 

 those sailors, a young man, awfully ignorant, steeped 

 to the lips in superstition, which in the ignorant nearly 

 always takes the place of Christianity, whether in a 

 religious form or otherwise, trembles so that he misses 

 his footing and, with a mad clutching at vacancy, 

 falls a hundred feet or so into the sea. There is a wild 

 running to and fro, a frantic tearing at boats' gripes 

 rusted firm by months of disuse ; but before the boat 

 is freed from her trammels, it is remarked that, calm 

 though the sea is, our shipmate is nowhere to be seen. 

 And the boat is not lowered — there is no need. 



Far beneath the surface, the Shark is finishing her 

 meal, the first really satisfying one she has had for 

 three days ; and who shall say that she does not feel 

 grateful to some invisible, non-understandable Power 

 who has provided it ? But in the hearts of all on 

 board there is a dull, solemn feeling of hatred for the 

 unconscious scavenger of the deep sea who happened 

 to be on the spot at the right time to eat a man who 

 fell overboard and was killed by the impact of the 

 water. So that when, next morning, again hungry, 

 the Shark cruises around, great preparations are made 

 to prevent this hideous, man-destroying monster from 



