THE SHARK AND THE PILOT-FISH. 505 



turned to their advantage, resumed the route they had 

 previously held. During all their various movements, 

 the shark did not lose sight of them, or rather, followed 

 them so closely, that you might almost have said it had 

 been trained by them to do so. 



" Its presence had no sooner been detected than a sailor 

 on board prepared a great hook, which he baited with 

 lard ; but the shark and its companions were already 

 seventy to eighty feet distant before the fisherman had 

 completed his preparations. However, he threw at all 

 hazards his bait into the sea. The noise occasioned by 

 the fall was audible at a distance. Our voyagers heard 

 it, were astonished, and checked their course ; the two 

 pilots turned about, and came to the vessel's stern in 

 quest of information. During their absence, the shark 

 disported itself after its fancy. It turned over on its 

 back, righted itself, dived deep into the sea, but always 

 reappeared at its point of departure. The two pilots, in 

 their survey of the poop of the Alcestis, discovered the 

 lard ; which they had no sooner done, than they returned 

 towards the shark much more swiftly than they had 

 parted from it. When they had come up with their 

 monstrous companion, the latter began to resume its 

 course. Then the pilots, swimming one on its right side, 

 the other on its left, used their utmost exertions to guide 

 it in a different direction ; and having at last succeeded, 

 they suddenly returned in company, and a second time 

 visited the vessel's stern, thus, through their sagacity, 

 bringing the shark in sight of the prey intended for it. 



"It has been asserted that the shark possesses a very fine 

 sense of smell. I paid close attention to all that passed 

 when it found itself in the neighbourhood of the pork, 



