FISHES OF THE EAST ATLANTIC COAST. 155 



shark's teeth had cut him in two, spite of his scale armor. What 

 chance would a man have in those terrible jaws ? 



Fortunately, the sharks on this coast feed so freely on fish that 

 they do not care to attack mankind. I have heard of no well- 

 authenticated instance of human beings eaten by them. The bodies 

 of some drowned persons have disappeared, which may have been 

 devoured by sharks, but there is no evidence of it. Mr. Pacetti, 

 who has been among them all his life, and has caught hundreds of 

 them with nets and hooks, tells me thit he was never attacked but 

 once by a shark He was fishing on the beach with a net in the 

 night, and wading in the surf a shark seized him by the leg. Having 

 thick canvass trousers on, he escaped unwounded, and he thought 

 the shark hardly knew what it was he attacked. Never having 

 seen, what is commonly aflirmed, that the shark must turn on hia 

 bade to seize his prey, I asked Pacetti what his experience was in 

 the mat.ter. His reply was, " A shark lays hold like any other fioh, 

 and he would have to go hungry if he had to turn over to bite, 

 — most any fish would get away from him." 



■/Another question is, how large do they grow? I have seen in the 

 Indian Ocean, a leopard shark fully twenty -five feet long and as wide 

 as the ship's long boat. It kept about the ship on a calm day with 

 smooth water, for some hours, but would not touch a bait, which 

 was fortunate, for no tackle that we had on board would have held 

 such a fish. The mate struck at it with a harpoon, which bounded 

 ofE from the tough and elastic hide, and the shark left us. It was 

 covered with light colored spots on a darker ground — a terrible look- 

 in-j' creature, which could have swallowed an ox. 



The Shovel-nose Shaek is a much more active species ; when 

 hooked, it never stops to be played, but goes ofi^ like a locomotive, 

 taking the tackle with it. 



The Hahmmee-head, or Ground Shark, is a strange looking 

 creature, with the headset at right angles with the body; the eyes at 

 the extreme points of the head, and the mouth underneath like other 

 sharks. This species rarely appear on the surface of the water; it 

 is said to be one of the most ferocious and dangerous of the shark 



