AMSTERDAM ISLAND. 145 
by the old one, or had vohmtarily fled thither for protectionj 
was a contested point among our medical gentlemen. One 
declared that he had more than once seen their own young 
egorged from the stomach of the old ones when taken ; and that 
once in particular he had observed a dozen SaAv fish (a species 
of shark, the Squalus Pristis) springing alive out of the 
mother's mouth, after it had been hoisted out of the sea upon 
the deck of the ship. Doctor Moseley, who has written on 
the subject and ought to be considered as good authority, has 
observed that the young sharks alwa3^s retreat into the sto- 
mach of the old ones in time of danger ; an observation, in- 
deed, that was made two centuries before his time. Sir 
Eichard Hawkins, who sailed on a voyage to South America 
in the year 1593, expressly says that he has frequently seen 
the young sharks go into, and out of, the mouth of the dam, 
and that he has found them in the stomach ; so that Linnaeus • 
is probably mistaken in supposing that this fish devours its 
own young. John Hunter decidedly proved that the living 
principle, in particular classes of land animals, is endued with 
the power of resisting the action of the gastric juice ; but 
the difficulty of making experiments on the digestive faculties 
of the stomachs of fishes leaves it undetermined whether the 
same principle is capable of exerting a greater or less degree 
of power in this class of animals. The nature indeed of di- 
gestion, with ail the experiments of Hunter and SpaUanzajii, 
seems to be yet but imperfectly understood ; but facts have 
sufficiently proved that it is exceedingly different in different 
animals. The shark gulps indiscriminately into its voracious 
maw the bones and shells of animals, large iron hooks, tarred 
ropes, and the clothing of such human creatures as unfortunately 
I' 
