CARCHARIAS. Q3 



tiger is in India,— the most insidious and cruel, of 

 all the inhabitants of the great deep. Of all oth- 

 ers, the white shark is the most terrific, and 

 therefore regarded by mariners with peculiar 

 dread. 



WHITE SHARK. 



White sharks cannot be said to be very common 

 on this coast ; vessels, in approaching the land, oc- 

 casionally discover one of these huge de tourers, 

 gently gliding through the water, in the wake of 

 the rudder. 



Usually the color is a light ash, hence its 

 name, though it is by no means always of that 

 shade. On the back, as with nearly all fishes, the 

 skin is quite dark ; the tail has three lobes ; teeth 

 exceedingly numerous, — and the body, when fully 

 grown, from twenty to thirty feet long. In trop- 

 ical climates, however, it attains its greatest size. 

 Fossil teeth of a shark, to which family the one under 

 consideration belongs, are found at Malta, measuring 

 four and a half inches from the point to the base, and 



