CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 5JGU 



gets free ; yet even then, though wounded and bleeding with the hook, 

 he will again pursue the bait until he is taken. When he finds the 

 hook lodged in his maw, his utmost efforts are then excited, but in 

 vain, to get free ; he tries with his teeth to cut the chain ; he pulls 

 with all his force to break the line ; he almost seems to turn his sto- 

 mach inside out to disgorge the hook ; in this manner he continues 

 his formidable though fruitless efforts; till, quite spent, he suffers his 

 head to be drawn above water, and the sailors, confining his tail by a 

 noose, in this manner draw him on shipboard, and despatch him. 

 This is done by beating him on the head till he dies; yet even that is 

 not effected without difficulty and danger; the enormous creature, 

 terrible even in the agonies of death, still struggles with his destroy- 

 ers; nor is there an animal in the world that is harder to be killed 

 Even when cut in pieces, the muscles still preserve their motion, and 

 vibrate for some minutes after being separated from the body Ano- 

 ther method of taking him, is by striking a barbed instrument called 

 a fizgig, into his body, as he brushes along by the side of the ship. As 

 soon as he is taken up, to prevent his flouncing, they cut off his tail 

 with an axe, with the utmost expedition. 



This is the manner in which Europeans destroy the shark ; but 

 some of the Negroes along the African coast, take a bolder and more 

 dangerous method to combat their terrible enemy. Armed with no- 

 thing more than a knife, the Negro plunges into the water, where he 

 sees the shark watching for his prey, and boldly swims forward to 

 meet him ; though the great animal does not come to provoke the 

 combat, he does not avoid it, and suffers the man to approach him ; 

 but just as he turns upon his side to seize the aggressor, the Negro 

 watches the opportunity, plunges his knife into the fish's belly, and 

 pursues his blows with such success, that he lays the ravenous tyrant 

 dead at the bottom ; he soon however returns, fixes the fish's head in 

 a noose, and drags him to shore, where he makes a noble feast for 

 the adjacent villages. 



Nor is man the only enemy this fish has to fear : the Remora, or 

 Sucking Fish, is probably a still greater, and follows the shark every 

 where. This fish has got the power of adhering to whatever it sticks 

 against, in the same manner as a cupping-glass sticks to the human 

 body. It is by such an apparatus that this animal sticks to the shark, 

 and drains away his moisture. The seamen, however, are of opinion 

 that it is seen to attend on the shark for more friendly purposes to 

 point him to his prey, and to apprize him of his danger. For this 

 reason it has been called the Shark's Pilot. 



Tht, shark so much resembles the whale in size, that some have in- 

 judiciously ranked it in the class of cetaceous fishes ; but its real rank 

 is in the place here assigned it, among those of the cartilaginous kind 

 It breathes with gills and lungs, its bones are gristly, and it brings 

 forth several living young: Bellonius assures us, that he saw a female 

 shark produce eleven live young ones at a time. But I will not take 

 upon mo to vouch for the veracity of Rondeletius, who, when talking 

 of the blue shark, says, that the female will permit her small brood 

 when in danger, to swim down her mouth, and t;tke shelter in her 

 belly. Mr. Pennant, indeed, seems to give credit to the story, and 

 thinks that this fish, like the opossum, may have a olace fitted b> 



