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THE SHARK. 



Of all the animals which inhabit the deep, the shark 

 is the fiercest and most voracious : the smallest of this 

 kind is considered formidable by those fish which greatly 

 exceed it in size ; though the white shark may some- 

 times rank with the whale in magnitude, as many of 

 them measure from twenty to thirty feet ; and we are 

 told that a human body has been found in their inside. 

 The head is large, and somewhat flattened; the snout 

 long ; and the eyes fierce, extensive, and full of fire. 

 The teeth are most terrible instruments of destruction, 

 as the animal is known to be furnished with six rows, 

 that amount to no less than an hundred and forty-four 

 in number, which, when it is at rest, lie quite flat in 

 the mouth ; but the moment it has the design of seiz- 

 ing upon its victim, these formidable weapons are 

 erected in rows. 



The shark is doubtless the fiercest depredator, and 

 the greatest tyrant that inhabits the deep ; his formi- 

 dable figure is calculated to intimidate, and his courage 

 and activity are scarcely to be conceived. No other 

 fish can swim with equal agility, for he is able to out- 

 strip the fleetest ships, and frequently plays round them 

 with sportive festivity, as if expecting to be regaled 

 with some part of their contents. A sailor that was 

 bathing in the Mediterranean, near .Antibes, in the 

 year one thousand seven hundred and forty-four, per- 

 ceived one of these dreadful monsters approaching, 

 and, anticipating his fate by the extension of its jaws, 

 in an agony of terror called out to his companions in- 

 stantaneously to throw him out a rope. The rope, of 

 course, was immediately thrown to him, and in eager 

 agony he secured his hold ; but, in the very moment 



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