ITS REMARKABLE VORACITY. 313 



The blue shark is found in almost all parts of the globe. 

 As it abounds in the Mediterranean, it was known to the 

 ancients; and Oppian records some illustrative particulars 

 of its remarkable love for its offspring, which our sailors 

 agree in accrediting, but our scientific naturalists dis- 

 believe. Here is the passage : * 



"Aye the blue sharks, secure from chasing foes, 

 Within their widened mouths their young enclose. 

 Beneath the circling arch they fearless hide, 

 Though bulky forms drive on the rising tide .... 



Of all oviparous kinds that throng the seas, 

 The fond blue sharks in tender care surpass .... 

 They rear their fondlings, like some careful nurse, 

 Observe their motions and restrain their course, 

 Eye every wave, and show the doubtful way, 

 Teach where to hunt, and where to find their prey. 

 When big with secret guilt the waters heave, 

 They in their mouths their sheltered young receive. 

 But when the waves at their own leisure roll, 

 And no fierce robber drives the scattered shoal, 

 Again the parent's pointed jaws comprest, 

 By force expel them from their pleasing nest." 



We own ourselves as incredulous as the naturalists, and 

 from a fact so dubious turn to one about which there can 

 be no difficulty, the creature's greediness. It will eat 

 pilchards, tunny, herring, mackerel, conger, gurnard, dog- 

 fish, and never knows when to cry, " Hold, enough ! " 

 Its tenacity of life is another remarkable characteristic. 

 An individual was caught with a line, the usual mode 

 of catching this fish, its liver was cut out, and the 

 bowels left hanging from the body, in which state it was 

 again thrown into the sea. But it continued near the 

 boat of its captors and executioners ; and not long after- 

 wards pursued, and attempted to devour, a mackerel that 

 had escaped from the net. Mr. Couch relates an instance 

 when a fish had been thrown overboard, after the head 



* Oppian, " Halieuties," bk. i. 



