CHONDROPTERYGII. 187 



bristling with six rows of lancet-like teeth, are 

 moved with a muscular power, sufficient to cut a 

 man asunder at one effort ; and as it is almost con- 

 stantly prowling around vessels in tropical climates, 

 it is universally regarded by mariners with uncon- 

 trollable horror and aversion. Our books of Natural 

 History teem with anecdotes of the fatal voracity of 

 this dreadful animal ; men have been found whole in 

 its capacious maw, and so indiscriminate is its ap- 

 petite, that it spares not its own species. Leems 

 relates, that a Laplander having caught a Shark 

 fastened it to his canoe : he presently missed it, with- 

 out being aware how it had gone ; in a short time 

 he caught another of a larger size, in which when 

 opened, he found the one which he had first taken. 

 In Beaufoy's Mexican Illustrations, a sickening nar- 

 rative is given. " A British sloop of war, containing 

 a lieutenant, two midshipmen, and thirty-two sailors 

 was capsized off Cuba. The poor fellows hung 

 about the wreck till the Sharks collected, and began 

 to fight for their prey. The first bitten, was the 

 lieutenant, whose leg was taken off above the knee. 

 He was soon torn to pieces, and others quickly 

 shared the same fate. A young midshipman was 

 pushed up on a part of the wreck where the Sharks 

 could not reach; one seaman swam off, and thinks 

 he frightened the voracious animals, by splashing the 

 water, but more probably they remained where their 

 victims were more numerous. The seaman was 

 picked up by an American vessel, which also put 

 about and saved the midshipman. On this horrible 



