OCEAN FISH AND OCEAN FISHING 71 



away — was carefully removed and utilised as sand- 

 paper. The backbone (to be turned into walking- 

 sticks) was the legitimate prize of the second mate, 

 and the jaw I purchased from the carpenter. It 

 was a grim and terrible apparatus, with five rows 

 of saw-edged, triangular teeth, whose sharpness I 

 unpleasantly experienced when cleaning the thing, 

 cutting two fingers to the bone. Its flesh, white 

 and firm, was eaten by the sailors. The flesh of 

 large sharks has a musty flavour and their blood 

 a horrible smell ; but a baby shark is by no means 

 bad eating. 



Our prize was sixteen feet long, and, judging by 

 the development of its rows of teeth, must have 

 roamed the ocean many years. It was of the 

 ordinary white kind that swarm near solitary 

 islands like Fernando Noronha and Los Roccas 

 and snatch the fish from the fishermen's lines at 

 the boat's side. 



