104 SPORT m NORTH AMERICA. 



at about a mile from where we were fishing, when 



he saw a shark below him. He cried out to his 



comrades for help, and a rope was thrown, which he 



succeeded in fastening under his arms ; but just at 



the moment when he was being hoisted out of the 



water, the monster had snapped at his thigh, and 



cut it off as clean as if it had been done with a 



knife.* The sailor died in consequence of the 



haemorrhage. After burying these human remains, 



we continued our researches among the contents of 



the shark, and our astonishment may be imagined 



Avhen we found a knife and an entire pine-apple. 



The brute had breakfasted upon fruit, and supped 



on a negro. The only puzzle was, how the knife 



got inside him. Perhaps he required it to cut up 



the pine-apple. 



The third shark the death of which I witnessed 



had found his way into New York Bay alongside the 



island. I had gone to Governor's Island to pay a 



visit to an officer of the American army who was 



stationed at the fort, when, suddenly, in the midst 



* The shark is very greedy of humau flesh. The majority of sailors 

 declare that it is fonder of black flesh than of white, and that the 

 sense of smell is so strongly developed in this fish that slave-shij^s are 

 always followed by large numbers of sharks. One thing is certain, 

 that if the sharks have a great fondness for negroes, the negroes have 

 a mortal hatred against the sharks. When a negro sees a shark, he 

 dives underneath him with a knife in his hand, and rips his belly open. 

 The blacks of Carolina are xerj skilful in killing sharks, and I knew 

 one, who belonged to Mr. Hammerford (a few miles from Charleston), 

 who had ripped up about thirty-three sharks, and upon whom his 

 fellows had bestowed the name of "Shark Killer." 



