722 PISCES—SHARK. 
ORDER T1.—PLAGIOSTOMTYE. 
Fisues of this order have the bronchi pectinated, the open mgs numerous, 
without operculi or membranes; palatine and postmandibulary bones armed 
with teeth in place of jaws. nee 
Die SHARK. 
Tue white shark! is sometimes seen to rank even among the whales for 
magnitude, and is found from twenty to thirty feet long. Some assert that 
they have seen them of four thousand pounds weight; and we are told 
particularly of one, that had a human corpse in his belly. The head is 
large, and somewhat flattened; the snout long, and the eyes large. The 
mouth is enormously wide, as is the throat, and capable of swallowing a 
man with great ease. But its furniture of teeth is still more terrible. Of 
these there are six rows extremely hard, sharp peinted, and of a wedge-like™ 
figure. It is asserted that there are seventy-two in each jaw, which make 
one 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 terri- 
ble instruments of destruction are found to increase. With these the jaws 
both above and belew appear planted all over ; but the animal has the 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 his 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, which 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 rough, hard, and prickly; being that substance which covers 
instrument cases, called shagreen. ; 
No fish can swim so fast as the shark; he outstrips the swiftest ships. 
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 obliged to turn on one side (not on 
his back, as is generally supposed,) to seize his prey. As this takes some 
small time to perform, the animal pursued seizes that oyportunity to make 
his escape. 
1 Carcharias vulgaris, Cuv. The genus Carcharias has the snout prominent, conical 
and depressed ; nostrils under its middle; teeth in many rows, edged, pointed, and often 
dentated on their margin; no spiracles; first dorsal fin before the ventrals, and the second 
nearly opposite the anal fin; last openings of the bronchie extending over the pectoral fins. 
