416 PROSE HAIilEUTICS. 



established habit of taking things coolly, all no doubt 

 materially contribute. So long a period allowed for 

 growth, and such a fine field too for development as the 

 open sea affords, will readily explain the enormous size 

 reached by some fish of rapacity in the vast watery do- 

 mains, particularly those ocean pirates, the dreaded and 

 dreadftd sharks; whose atrocities, though perpetrated, 

 are not written in water, and who, ' overwhelmed with 

 cruelty,' yet ' come to no misfortune like other ' fish ; 

 whose eyes swell with fatness, and who do even as they 

 lust; raging horribly everywhere Hke wild beasts, the 

 terror of navigators and the scourge of the deep ! 



The ancients have left us many lively representations 

 of the sanguinary proceedings of these ill-omened Squali, 

 whose ' reign of terror,-" after four thousand years of his- 

 torical renown, remains as firmly established over the 

 waters as ever. In early times, several different species 

 of sharks were confounded ; but as the knowledge of the 

 sea and its stores increased, it was at length ascertained 

 beyond controversy that these cartilaginous monsters, aU 

 of whom are alike daring and voracious, and terrible ac- 

 cording to their size and strength, are of various species. 

 Under the heading ' Canicula,' Pliny relates, in his usual 

 animated and pleasing style, the proceedings of one of 

 these, which is evidently our Tope, the Squalus mUandra 

 of the French, and La Samiola of the Mediterranean, 

 where they still abound, to the terror of the Italian and 

 Maltese boatmen and the detriment of their nets. Though 

 this canicula averages but twelve feet, he is equal to the 

 gigantic white shark incynopic impudence and rapacity; 

 he has often been known to seize sailors standing beside 

 their boat, and tardy bathers stiU in their shirts. The 

 poor pearl-divers of the Indian seas have however most 

 reason to dread his approach ; which they meet in the 

 same manner as was practised by this class of men in 

 the days of Pliny. 



