52 NATURAL HISTORY. 



when prepared, is known as shagreen. Some of them 

 are ovo- viviparous, and bring their young living to the 

 world ; others lay eggs, covered with a coriaceous or 

 leather-like skin. These eggs are oblong, angular, and 

 have a membraneous integument on the corners as though 

 wound round with threads. The young, however, are 

 mostly developed before the eggs are laid. 



The Giant Shark (squalus carcharias), plate 20, fig. 

 6, is the largest and most formidable of the tribe ; about 

 four fathoms long; has four hundred teeth, which are 

 notched on the edges ; these terrible instruments, placed 

 loosely in the mouth, the animal has the power of erect- 

 ing or depressing at pleasure. The shark harbors mostly 

 in the southern seas, and swallows everything that comes 

 in his way ; is often seen to follow after ships, and, being 

 very gluttonous, seizes upon all articles thrown over- 

 board, and, as it swallows whatever comes in its way 

 whole, is easily taken by a bait. The manner of catch- 

 ing this huge fish is by means of a great hook enveloped 

 in a piece of beef, pork, or putrid meat of any kind ; 

 this, fastened to an iron chain, is dropped into the sea, 

 in the neighborhood of where a shark has been seen ; an 

 iron chain is chosen instead of a rope, as the fish would 

 quickly bite the latter in two. The voracious animal ap- 

 proaches the bait, surveys it at first cautiously, but at last 

 darts at it and swallows hook and all ; but when he finds 

 the hook lodged in his maw, he seems to turn his stomach 

 inside out, and to disgorge it. After a fearful battle, 

 during which the enraged animal lashes the water into 

 foam in his fruitless efforts to escape, the sailors mean- 

 while piercing him with spears and grapnels, he becomes 

 exhausted, and suffers himself to be drawn on shipboard, 

 where he is soon dispatched. The flesh is not good ; the 



