300 NATURAL HISTORY. 



would show none for them ; but they adopt the most cruel methods they 

 •can devise for ridding the ship of its escort. A recent writer has thus told 

 how he rid his vessel of a shark which had been following it for days, and 

 arousing the most superstitious ideas in the minds of his crew, each one of 

 whom felt that he was marked out for a victim : — 



" Looking over the bulwarks of the schooner, I saw one of these watchful 

 monsters winding lazily backward and forward like a long meteor ; some- 

 times rising till his nose disturbed the surface, and a gushing sound like a 

 deep breath rose through the breakers ; at others, resting motionless on 

 the water as if listening to our voices and thirsting for our blood. As we 

 were watching the motions of this monster, Bruce . . . suggested the pos- 

 sibility of destroying it. This was, briefly, to heat a fire-brick in the stove, 

 wrap it up hastily in some old greasy cloths as a sort of disguise, and then 

 to heave it overboard. This was the work of a few minutes ; and the 

 effect was triumphant. The monster followed after the hissing prey. We 

 saw it dart at the brick like a flash of lightning, and gorge it instanter. 

 The shark rose to the surface almost immediately, and his uneasy motions 

 soon betrayed, the success of the manoeuvre. His agonies became terrible ; 

 the waters appeared as if disturbed by a violent squall, and the spray was 

 driven over the taffrail where we stood, while the gleaming body of the 

 fish repeatedly burst through the dark waves as if writhing with fierce and 

 terrible convulsions. . . . His fury, however, was soon exhausted, and 

 the agitation of the sea subsided. The shark had given himself up to the 

 tides, and was unable to struggle against the approach of death." 



Near relatives of the sharks are the rays and skates, and a number of 

 forms almost bridge the gap between them. The general appearance of 

 one of the typical forms is shown in the upper figure of our cut, — a broad 

 flat body, not separated from the head, and a long tail much more slender 

 in its appearance. Most of them are bottom-feeders, moving lazily along 

 by gentle undulations of the sides of the body, and stopping now and then 

 to devour some flounder or oyster lying on the mud. They lack the sharp 

 teeth of most of the sharks, but instead, have the pavement-like teeth 

 described as characteristic of the smooth-hound. 



Best known of all the ray-like forms are the saw-fishes, which in the 

 shape of body are more like the sharks than they are to the typical rays. 

 The strangest part of their structure is the long saw, with teeth implanted 

 in its edges, which projects from the tip of the snout. This terrible organ 

 is at once an organ of offence and defence. The saw itself sometimes 

 reaches a length of six feet, and the teeth, two inches apart, project an 

 inch or more from its sides. With this strange organ the saw-fish slashes 



