452 SHARKS. 



ble, and sounded much like the noise made by flocks 

 of waterfowl in rising. 



The presence of such numerous shoals of these fish 

 is indicative of other shoals of larger fish, which un- 

 doubtedly follow the flying fish to prey upon them. 

 Indeed, by keeping a sharp look-out over the surface 

 of the deep, it is seldom that a careful observer will 

 pass even a single day without catching sight of larger 

 fish of some sort ; he will also occasionally observe the 

 water lashed into foam, in spots where numerous shoals 

 of fish are either disporting themselves, or in the act 

 of preying upon smaller fry. 



Therefore, if in ocean-fishing no fish are caught, it- 

 is not because they are not there, but because they are 

 frightened away by the ship, or else see the line and 

 suspect a snare, or perhaps do not approve the bait. 



Both at sea and in harbour, in many parts of the 

 world where the waters are infested with sharks, ex- 

 citing sport may be obtained in the capture of one of 

 these monsters of the deep. 



" The great white shark of the West Indies (Squalus Car- 

 charias, Linn.) is the most formidable of all the inhabitants 

 of the ocean : for in none are the powers of inflicting injury 

 so combined with the eagerness to accomplish it. They usually 

 cut in sunder any object of considerable size, and there is 

 no hesitation in passing into the stomach, even what is of 

 enormous bulk. Captain King in his Survey of Australia says 

 he caught one which could have swallowed a man with the 

 greatest ease." * 



The usual bait for them is a large piece of meat of 

 some kind, put on a hook the size of a salmon gaff, 



* Historv of the Fishes of the British Islands, by Jonathan Couch,. 

 F.L.S., Vo'l. i., p. 27. 



