I08 The Shark 



fish by a push of his saw beneath them, and then 

 nuzzling in the soft entrails, the only food that he really 

 cares about. These Sharks grow to a length of fifteen 

 feet and weight of a ton. 



Then there is the Thresher Shark, with which I 

 have dealt pretty fully in the chapter on the Mysticetus, 

 the sole peculiarity of which is the abnormally long 

 upper lobe to his tail, used as a sort of flail wherewith 

 to beat the hapless mammal. Sharks of weird aspect 

 but of no large capacity of mouth abound also in the 

 great depths of the sea, and are only brought to the 

 surface in a more or less mutilated condition, owing 

 to the tremendous change of pressure during their 

 pELSsage upward. 



But one of the most interesting of the Shark tribe 

 is the parasitical or semi-parasitical Remora. This 

 small shark (seven pounds weight is about their 

 maximum) has an extraordinary arrangement on the 

 top of its head (which is perfectly flat) whereby it can 

 attach itself so firmly to any floating body as not to 

 be detachable by any force applied except at the cost 

 of rending the fish asunder — unless one knows the 

 trick which the fish itself uses, in which case the creature 

 is detached in a moment without difficulty, and darts 

 off at a high speed to find some other host to which 

 it may attach itself. A ship or a whale matters little, 

 — its object is to be carried along in the immediate 

 vicinity of food which it may obtain by merely opening 

 its mouth and closing it at intervals. I have already 

 noted the suckers' delightful quarters in the mouth of 

 a right whale, adhering to the palate with its head 

 pointed in the direction from whence the whale's food 

 enters, so that it easily receives tithe of all without 

 the slightest effort on its part to obtain it. So you 

 shall find a whole family of Remorae attached to one 



