430 PEOSE HAIIEUTICS. 



tion of danger, and while she was being gently drawn 

 alongside, all the young ones entered her mouth, to seek 

 safety. With some difficulty, and much dexterity, she 

 was secured and slung ; but such was the weight of the 

 quarry, that it required the fore and mainyard tackles 

 to hoist her on board. After giving sundry violent flaps 

 on the deck, she was overpowered, though still exhibiting 

 that astonishing tenacity of life common to cold-blooded 

 creatures. But now came the proof that what we had 

 seen was no ' deceptio visus.' On a large gash being 

 made in the fore part of the belly, we saw no fewer than 

 thirty-eight young sharks tumble out of the orifice alive. 

 They were each nearly two feet in length, tinted vrith 

 mackerel colours, and their mouths admitted a man's 

 hand with ease.' 



But notwithstanding these short paroxysms of parental 

 tenderness, taken as a class, it may be safely asserted that 

 nothing in nature is more savage than the whole dog-fish 

 tribe, the only difficulty being to determine precisely to 

 which of the several species the bad pre-eminence at best 

 belongs; whether to the white, the blue, or basking 

 shark, the canesca, the zygsena, the rough-hound or 

 bounce, etc., for they are all red republicans of the deep ; 

 strife their element, blood their caudle-cup, cruelty their 

 pastime : so that the poor hunted hare's dying words 

 in the jaws of a glaucus are appropriate as they are 

 touching.* Even the soft sex, which amongst most 

 creatures deserves this winning epithet, is in the squalidse 

 so far from being a recommendation, that the females are 

 in fact more ferocious than the males. A Messalina 

 sharkess has been known to dash into a crowd of un- 



Trinacria quondam currentem in littoris ora 

 Ante canes leporem Cseruleus rapit, 

 At lepus : in me ointiis terrfe, pelagique rapina est, 

 Forsitan et coeli, si canis astra tenet. — Atison. 



