OCEAN FISH AND OCEAN FISHING 65 



two or three tiny corpses, sewn up in canvas and 

 weighted with iron, were committed to the ocean. 

 Almost simultaneously the ominous fins — at a 

 distance resembling the necks of champagne 

 bottles — would appear from every quarter, and 

 we knew that the mortal remains of those 

 babes and sucklings did not descend to any great 

 depth. 



Sharks undoubtedly follow ships where death 

 is expected, but only when they have perceived 

 a gruesome evidence of it. For, weight a corpse 

 as much as you will, it sinks but slowly in the 

 buoyant four-mile-deep salt water of the Atlantic, 

 and sharks can dive ! 



I shall not forget a touching incident during 

 this serious outbreak of disease. For the sake 

 of a better atmosphere than could be obtained in 

 the hot steerage, an emaciated woman had been 

 brought on a mattress on to the poop. She was 

 rapidly dying of dysentery, and her baby, but a 

 few weeks old, had been buried at sea two days 

 before. " Oh, my puir bairn ! my puir bairn ! " 

 kept repeating the woman in her delirium. " The 

 sharks have got ye, my sweet babe ! Don't throw 

 7/ie to them." 



Next day, the poor woman's body— over which 



