The Mighty Deep 



The largest of these creatures is the vast 

 Whale-shark, belonging to the Indo-Pacific Seas, 

 sometimes over fifty feet in length, and stated 

 even to reach seventy feet. 



However, if accounts be correct, this giant 

 is much less of an enemy to the whale than the 

 Greenland Shark. In the fashion of some savage 

 nations, the latter feeds deliberately upon the live 

 whale, biting raw steaks at pleasure from the 

 worried leviathan — "scooping and gorging lump 

 after lump," so long as it feels " dispoged." 



The Greenland Shark is credited with feeling 

 no pain, and it is extremely difficult to kill, as 

 the unfortunate whale attacked by it finds to his 

 cost. 



Worse than all, so far as human beings are 

 concerned, are the famous Man-eating Sharks of 

 tropical waters, which occasionally, but not very 

 often, find their way to colder latitudes. 



Among them, the Great Blue Shark, from 

 fifteen to twenty-five feet long, and the awful 

 White Shark, known sometimes to reach a length 

 of thirty-seven feet, have an undesirable pre- 

 eminence. 



These monsters are furnished with teeth, the 

 reverse of "unimportant." In shape they are 

 generally triangular, serrated, and sharply pointed. 



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