282 THE OCEAN. 



wave, amidst the foam and spray, iiutil within a yard 

 or two of the shore or rocks. Then, when a stranger 

 expects to see him the next moment dashed to death, 

 he slides off his board, and, catching it by the middle, 

 dives seaward under the wave, and comes up behind, 

 laughing and whooping, again to swim out as before. 

 The utmost skill is required, in coming in, to keep 

 the position on the top of the wave ; for, if the board 

 get too forward, the swimmer will be overturned and 

 thrown upon the beach ; and, if it fall behind, he 

 will be buried beneath the succeeding wave : yet 

 some of the natives are so expert as to sit, and even 

 to stand upright upon their board, while it is thus 

 riding in the foam. 



Their sport is, however, not unfrequently disturbed 

 by the appearance of a shark. This terrific animal is 

 particularly abundant among the South Sea Islands, 

 and remarkably bold and ferocious. The cry of 

 " A Shark !" among the surf swimmers will instantly 

 set them in the utmost terror, and generally they fly 

 with precipitation to the shore ; though sometimes 

 they unite and endeavour to frighten him away with 

 their shouting and splashing. Often, however, the 

 animal is too determined lightly to give up his prey, 

 as was the case in the following instance recorded by 

 Mr. Richards of the Sandwich Islands : — 



"At nine o'clock in the morning of June 14th, 

 3 826, while sitting at my writing-desk, I heard 

 a simultaneous scream from multitudes of people, 

 ' Pau i ka mano ! ' (Destroyed by the shark !) The 

 beach was instantly lined by hundreds of persrns, 

 and a few of the most resolute threw a large canoe 



