433 PKOSE HALIEUTICS. 



stroyers of the deep ; 'twere ptmishment enougli for a mortal to 

 be tossed about unsepulcbred on the waves, but to become the 

 pasture of a fish, and to fill the foul maw of such a rarenous mon- 

 ster as I now behold, would add tenfold horror to such a lot ! ' * 



We participate entirely with this landsman in his 

 hearty detestation of sharks^ remembering well the mixed 

 awe and interest inspired in everybody's mind by the 

 view of a tope, albeit a small one for the species, cap- 

 tured after a furious resistance off the' thunny-fishery of 

 Palermo in the night, and brought iu next morning by 

 the sailors, at the market hour. Dozens of colossal 

 thunnies, alalongas, pelamyds, and sword-fish, lay that 

 morning scarcely noticed : the object of general attraction 

 was the dread canesca, whose mangled corse, stretched 

 by itself in. the middle of the "place, was surrounded by 

 an excited and admiring throng, aU loud in their excla- 

 mations and iaquiries. The men who had secured the 

 fish, perfectly satisfied with the results of the night's 

 toU, smoked their pipes complacently, and gave the par- 

 ticulars of the capture to those who were eagerly press- 

 ing round to hear the exciting tale. Women, of course, 

 — when were they, of the lower class, ever absent from 

 any spectacle of horror ? — mingled largely in the crowd ; 

 some with an infant in arms, others clutching their chil- 

 dren by the hand, but all pointing out the fish to their 



* There was no museum at Padua in Oppian's day, or he would, 

 after such a recital as the above, no doubt have introduced his 

 readers to the shark chamber of this institution ; a long, lofty 

 saloon, exclusively appropriated to the reception of the different 

 species which infest the Mediterranean. The visitor's first sen- 

 sations on entering this Salle des Requins are not comfortable : 

 a whole troop of this slirewd, fierce beasts, well stuffed and ad- 

 mirably preserved, are suspended by invisible wires from the 

 ceiling, and appear alive — each hungry claimant apparently eye- 

 ing the intruder's person for a moment ' in grim repose,' ere he 

 makes a dash, to ' swallow bim up quick.' 



