THE BLUE SHARK. 



205 



up their lines with the fish upon the hooks, the Blue Shark will follow the fish as it is 

 drawn upwards, seize upon it, and hook itself for its trouble. Exasperated by the un- 

 suspected check upon its maraudings, it tries to bite the line asunder, a feat easily 

 performed by its lancet-like teeth with their notched edges. 



Sometimes, however, it takes to another stratagem, and as soon as it feels the hook, 

 rolls itself round so rapidly on its axis, that it winds the line round its body into a 

 mass of inextricable entanglement. So effectually is this feat achieved, that in spite 

 of the value of the line, the fishermen have been known to give up any attempt to un- 

 ravel its knotty convolutions. This fish has another fashion of biting the line asunder 

 without any apparent reason. 



BLUB SHARK.-Squa/us glaucus 



Perhaps, however, it never is so thoroughly destructive as in the pilchard season, 

 when it follows the vast shoals of these fish to our shores and devours them whole- 

 sale. Even when they are inclosed in the net, the Blue Shark is not to be baffled or 

 deprived of its expected banquet, for, swimming along the whole length of the net, it 

 bites at the inclosed fish, caring nothing for the meshes, and taking out large 

 mouthfuls of mingled net and pilchards, swallows them together. 



There is hardly a season passes when the capture of a fine specimen of the Blue 

 Shark on our coasts is not recorded in the local papers. The sailors have an idea that 

 this voracious fish is able to succor her young when in danger, by opening her mouth 

 and letting them swim down her throat. It is undoubtedly true, that living young have 

 been found in the stomach of large sharks ; but whether they had been swallowed as 

 a means of protection, is by no means proved. The reader will doubtlessly remember 

 the similar stories that have been told of the viper and other poisonous snakes. 



