The Biography of a Man-Eater 



ing beneath a great lavender-hued gorgonia. For 

 two days he was caged here, not having the strength 

 or intelligence to rise upward and escape. On the 

 second day a young crawfish fell upon his head and 

 instinctively the jaws of the young man-eater opened 

 and closed upon the victim. A crunching sound, and 

 the shark, tasting flesh, scenting prey, swung himself 

 about, shaking the morsel as a dog would a rat, toss- 

 ing the mud high above the surface of the head, 

 clouding the water, out of which he rose. He had 

 eaten, tasted blood, though white, and from now on 

 his one object was to destroy. 



For several months he lived this life, slowly mak- 

 ing his way over the splendid tropical floor of the 

 ocean, sleeping at times in the crevices of rocks, or 

 between coral heads, or under them, foraging where 

 he could, darting clumsily upon octopi, crabs, even 

 starfishes, or any miserable creature which could offer 

 no resistance, thus early in life displaying his sordid 

 nature. The young shark never left the shallows, 

 and at the end of a year, nurtured on good diet, had 

 materially enlarged. He was now three feet in 

 length; his tail long and powerful, his body notice- 

 ably bulky. But the greatest change was in the 

 mouth. The first row of teeth was well defined, 

 sharp and serrated. The eye was a little larger, but 

 still the color of sand paper, with no expression. He 

 had begun to change his diet. He discovered that 

 crawfish and other crustaceans went out on the shal- 



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