184 The Under-Water World 



tribe is the extraordinary :{ hammer- 

 head/' This big fish has its eyes set on 

 stalks running at right angles to the head, 

 a strange setting believed to give the fish 

 command of an unusually wide field of 

 vision. The hammerhead begins life 

 looking much like an ordinary British 

 dogfish, and it is not until it approaches 

 maturity in its third year that the two 

 rf hammers " are developed. The white 

 shark, which reaches forty feet in length, 

 hails from most warm seas, and has a 

 deservedly bad reputation. It will eat 

 anything it can swallow, and a school of 

 half a dozen can dispose of a dead horse 

 flung overboard in six sharp snaps one 

 to each shark. 



Amongst anglers the shark is classed 

 as " vermin/' and is fished for when 

 better game is scarce. A typical giant 

 shark " patternoster " consists of four 

 hooks and chains each weighing twenty 

 or more pounds, with a ten-pound stone 



