FISHES. 4.93 



seventy-two in each jaw, which make a hundred and forty-four 

 in the whole ; yet others think that their number is uncertain; 

 and that in proportion as the animal grows older, these terrible 

 instruments of destruction are found to increase. With these 

 the jaws, both above and below, appear planted all over ; but the 

 animal has a power of erecting or depressing them at pleasure. 

 When the shark is at rest, they lie quite flat in his mouth ; but 

 when he prepares to seize his prey, he erects all this dreadful 

 apparatus, by the help of a set of muscles that join them to the 

 jaw ; and the animal he seizes, dies, pierced with a hundred 

 wounds, in a moment. 



Nor is this fish less terrible to behold as to the rest of his 

 form : his fins are larger in proportion ; he is furnished with 

 great goggle eyes, that he turns with ease on every side, so as to 

 see his prey behind him as well as before ; and his whole aspect 

 is marked with a character of malignity : his skin also is rougii, 

 hard, and prickly ; being that substance which covers instrument 

 cases, called shagreen. 



As the shark is thus formidable in his appearance, so is he 

 also dreadful from his courage and activity. No fish can swim 

 so fast as he ; none so constantly employed in swimming : he out- 

 strips the swiftest ships, plays round them, darts out before them, 

 returns, seems to gaze at the passengers, and all the while does not 

 seem to exhibit the smallest symptom of an effort to proceed. 

 Such amazing powers, with such great appetites for destruction, 

 would quickly unpeople even the ocean, but providentially, the 

 shark's upper jaw projects so far above the lower, that he is ob- 

 liged to turn on one side, (not on his back, as is generally sup- 

 posed,) to seize his prey. As this takes some small time to 

 perform, the animal pursued seizes that opportunity to make its 

 escape. 



Still, however, the depredations he commits are frequent and 

 formidable. The shark is the dread of sailors in all hot climates ; 

 where, like a greedy robber, he attends the ships, in expectation 

 of what may drop over-board. A man who unfortunately falls 

 into the sea at such a time, is sure to perish^ without mercy. A 

 sailor that was bathing in the Mediterranean, near Antibes, in 

 the year llVi, while he was swimming about fifty yards from 

 the ship, perceived a monstrous fish making towards him, and 

 Burvcyifig him on every side, as fish are often seen to look round 



III. 2 X 



