Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 195 
for a long time the flesh that was presented to them, at length 
take it, and on being opened have nothing in their digestive 
canal. It has been said that they have the faculty of springing 
out of the water, in order to seize their prey ; we have never, 
however, remarked it. A story is told of a seaman, who, while 
bathing, was pursued by one of these voracious animals : on 
hearing his cries, a rope was thrown out to him, which he got hold 
of; and scarcely had he left the surface of the water, when the 
furious animal sprung at him, and carried off one of his legs. 
We shall stop to contradict this account, because it is evidently 
at variance with all that we know of the motions which the or- 
ganization of sharks can allow them. From the position of 
their throat, in the middle of, or beneath, a long snout, they can 
only lay hold of their prey, by turning upon one side, or upon 
their back. Now, we ask, could this animal, in a position so unfa- 
vourable, spring up, by raising a considerable mass of water, 
which weighs not only upon its body, but also upon its large 
pectoral fins, whose constantly horizontal direction is one of the 
greatest obstacles to the faculty which it is alleged to possess of 
bounding out of the water ? Not satisfied with mere reasoning on 
the subject, we had several times recourse to experiment, and it was 
always in vain that we presented to the most famished shark, a 
bait at six inches distance from the surface of the water ; it left it 
without making the slightest attempt to get at it. These fishes 
never have the body and head above the level of the sea ; all that 
they can do is to shew the extremity of the dorsal fin : sometimes, 
but rarely, the upper lobeof thatof the tail. Itis even by theformer 
sign, that, in a calm, its approach is discovered at a distance. 
We also think, that too much has been attributed to the power 
of its jaws, and the cutting action of its teeth. It is certain 
that no fish has sharper ones ; but if we consider their very 
oblique position, which render some of them parallel to the axis 
of the body, and the manner in which they act with relation to 
one another ; if we examine the mechanism of the jaws, which, 
as they do not correspond, cannot possibly furnish a point of 
support to each other, we shall see that they do not act perpen- 
dicularly upon the body to be divided, and that they cannot cut 
it fairly, if it be very strong, as a bone for example. We there- 
fore consider as exaggerated what is told us of men cut in 
