170 PREFERENCE FOR HUMAN FOOD, 



it is this which he most prizes, and numbers of persons fall 

 victims to his voracity in the seas he frequents. It is ter- 

 rible to think of such a fate, for the huge monster is not 

 only capable of snapping off a limb in a moment, or biting a 

 person in two, but has been known to swallow a man alive. 

 It is also stated on good authority that a shark was taken off 

 the island of St. Margaret, which weighed fifteen hundred 

 pounds, and the stomach was found to contain the whole 

 body of a horse, which had probably been thrown over- 

 board from some ship. 



The following horrible tragedy is related: "As the ship 

 Karnak W3i8 leaving the port of Nassau, a pilot fell overboard 

 from her boat, in which he was being towed. The ship was 

 istopped, and the boat instantly left for his rescue, while two 

 life-buoys were thrown from the ship. The boat got close 

 enough to give him the end of an oar, which he took, and 

 cried, * For God's sake save me!' The men were about to 

 haul him into the boat, when he was carried down by a large 

 shark which came up at the moment, taking the oar with 

 him. 



"A few days after the fatal accident, a shark was captured 



in Nassau harbor, and on being opened, the pilot's right 



^hand and wrist, with a portion of his shirt (by which the 



hand was identified), a goat's head, with horns nine inches 



long, and a turtle's head were found in his stomach." 



The French name this fearful animal the Bequin, or Re- 

 quiem (the rest or stillness of death), in allusion to the deadly 

 character of his habits : to add to the horror of his appear- 

 ance, a phosphoric light is emitted from his huge body when 

 near the surface of the water. To get at human flesh, the 

 shark has been known to bound several feet out of the sea, 

 and seize the unwary sailor occupied in the rigging of the 

 vessel, when in full sail, and to leap into fishing-boats, and 

 grapple with the men at their oars. 



" No wonder that every man's hand should be raised 



