THE SAND SHAEK. 671 



enormous size. The British Museum has the jaws of an individual, thirty-six feet in length, taken 

 in Australia. Its mouth is wide, its teeth large, and its jaws strong; it is probable that this 

 species and the Tiger Shark are among the most voracious of their kind. 



This is an exceedingly rare species on our Atlantic coast. Storer could learn of the capture of 

 but three individuals from 1820 to 1860, one measuring six feet in length, a second nine feet, 

 and a third thirteen feet. The specimen which he described was captured at Provincetown, and 

 was brought to Boston for exhibition. When first seen it was swimming in ten feet of water on 

 the Long Point side of Provincetown Harbor. A boat's crew having given cliase, a harpoon was 

 thrown into it, when it turned toward the boat and seized it with great ferocity near the bows. 

 In the act several of its teeth were broken off. It was eventually killed by being frequently lanced. 

 A specimen was observed at Eastport, Maine, in August, 1872. It is frequently taken in Monterey 

 Bay. A specimen lately taken at Soquel, California, had a young sea-lion whole in its stomach. 



Captain Atwood writes : " The Man-eater is rare; I don't remember of having fallen in with 

 but four; these were, with one exception, all caught in mackerel-nets. I suppose about two or 

 three may be caught every year about Provincetown, but fishermen cut them out of the nets and 

 let them go." 



The enormous fossil Sharks' teeth which are found in the phosphate beds of South Carolina 

 belong to a Shark closely related to our Man-eater, and, judging from the proportionate size of the 

 teeth, individuals measuring seventy or eighty feet in length cannot have been at all uncommon. 



The alleged attacks upon men by Sharks, if any credence is to be attached to them, should 

 doubtless be credited to this species and to the Tiger Sharks. Such attacks are, however, of very 

 rare occurrence, and the stories of them lose nothing of the marvelous in repetition. I quote 

 one of the few accounts which have found their way into permanent record: 



" On the 12th of July, 1830, Mr. Joseph Blaney, aged fifty -two, went out in a fishing-boat at 

 Swampscot, Massachusetts, when a Shark overset his boat and killed him. [This Shark must have 

 been extremely ferocious. Mr. Blaney went out into the bay in one of the large Swampscot boats^ 

 which he left, and in a small boat rowed away, alone, to fish. After some hours he was seen to 

 wave his hat for assistance. Another boat immediately started toward him, and presently the fish 

 was seen to slide off, Mr. Blaney still remaining in his boat. But the Shark renewed the attack, 

 carrying down the boat before the other could arrive. It came to the surface bottom up, and the 

 unfortunate man was no more seen.]"^ 



The Sand Shark — Odontaspis littoralis. 



This species, known also on the coast of Maine as the " Shovel-nosed Shark," and at Prov- 

 incetown as the "Dogfish Shark," is found on our coast from New England southward to Charles- 

 ton, and is believed by Giinther to occur also about Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Little is 

 known of its habits or movements; it is occasionally found straggling upon the shores at Cape Cod 

 or entangled in the mackerel-nets. It is a sluggish species and hugs the bottom closely, feeding 

 upon crabs, lobsters, and squids. The ordinary length is five or six feet, but about Nantucket 

 they grow much larger, attaining the length of nine or ten feet and the weight of two hundred 

 pounds or more. It is a favorite amusement of summer visitors at Nantucket to fish for them, and 

 ten or twelve are frequently taken by one man in a day. Their bodies are used for manure, while 

 the livers are saved for the oil which they contain. The liver of a large individual will yield a 

 gallon of oil, worth about seventy -five cents.^ 



'Lewis & Nbwhall: History of Lynn, p. 395. 



'Jackson: Proceedings Bost. Soo. Nat. Hist., vi, 1857, p. 259. 



