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TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



caught, was twenty feet long. " Our ship was at anchor, and I was 

 holding a line over the side, when the rope began to quiver. I felt 

 that I had hooked a large fish, and, pulling it cautiously, a large shark 

 came to the surface. I called out loudly, when all the passengers 

 came to my help. He struggled, however, so violently, lashing the 

 water with his tail, and trying to bite the hook asunder, that we were 

 obliged to keep dipping his head under water, and then haul him up 

 two or three feet so that the water ran down into his stomach. We 

 went on repeating this till he was nearly drowned, then sending a 

 running bowline down the rope by which he was caught, and making 

 it taut under his hindermost fin, we clapped the line round the 

 steam-winch, and turned the steam on. Some then hauled his tail 

 up, while all available hands dragged at the other line which held his 



Fig. 1. 



The Jaw of the Infant Shark. 



head. As soon as we got him on board, he sent about three feet of the 

 ship's bulwarks out by a lash of his tremendous tail — which was cut 

 off by the boatswain with a hatchet, while a dozen of us with bowie- 

 knives finished him and opened his maw. Inside we found six large 

 snakes, two dozen lobsters, two empty quart-bottles, a sheepskin and 

 horns, and the shank-bones of beef which the cook had thrown over- 

 board two days before. The liver filled two large wash-deck tubs, 

 and when the cook melted it down we got ten gallons of oil, which 

 sold at Brisbane at 4s. Qd. a gallon." When his remains were thrown 



