THE SHARK. 99 



capable of swallowing a man without difficulty. Its furniture 

 of teeth, however, is still more terrible, and exhibits a most for- 

 midable apparatus of destruction. These are set in six rows, 

 and are said to amount to a hundred and forty-four in number. 

 With these both the upper and under jaws appear planted all 

 over ; and what is extremely singular, the fish has the power of 

 erecting and depressing them at pleasure : when it is at rest, 

 they lie flat in its mouth ; but the moment that it prepares to 

 seize its victim, these dreadful instruments of destruction are 

 erected in rows. 



The shark is indisputably the fiercest depredator that swims 

 in the ocean ; for neither the dolphin, the grampus, nor even the 

 spermaceti whale, can, in regard to ferocity, boldness, and inde- 

 fatigable activity, bear any comparison with this terrible devourer. 

 No other fish can swim so fast : his agility is such that he out- 

 strips, with ease, the fastest-sailing vessels. 



Such amazing powers, united with such appetites for destruc- 

 tion, would depopulate the ocean, had not Creative Wisdom or- 

 dained a conformation of- the jaws of- this fish, which serves in 

 some measure to counteract its insatiable voracity. The upper- 

 jaw projects so far over the lower, that the shark is obliged to 

 turn on one side to seize his prey ; and as this takes some small 

 time in the performance, the animal pursued often takes that 

 opportunity to make its escape. 



Notwithstanding this disadvantage, the ravages of the shark 

 are dreadful. He is the dread of sailors in all hot climates 

 where he generally attends the ships in expectation of what may 

 drop overboard. A man who happens to fall into the sea at 

 such a time, meets certain destruction. A sailor who was bath- 

 ing in the Mediterranean near Antibes, in the year 1744, per- 

 ceiving one of those terrible monsters approaching him, from the 

 extension of its jaws, anticipating his fate, called out in an agony 

 of terror to his companions to throw out a rope. The rope was 

 immediately thrown, and in eager haste he secured his hold ; but 

 in the very moment when his comrades were drawing him up to 

 a place of safety, the shark sprang upon him, and at one snap 

 snatched off one of his legs. This ferocious and formidable fish 

 has been known to bite a person asunder in the middle; and 

 indeed were we to mention all the dreadful instances of its vo- 

 racity, it would prolong this article to an immoderate length. 

 It is however to be observed, that bathing in the sea, which in 

 hot climates is so delightful and salutary, is attended with great 

 danger in those parts where the shark abounds ; for his approach 

 is sudden, and often unpereeived, his spring instantaneous, his 

 aim certain, and his bite fatal. 



The usual method which sailors have contrived for taking this 



