27 — 
have been so busy , my office full of captains and sailors, 
and I find it will be too late to attend the meeting when 1 
have finished my work — so have made a copy of my Keporfc 
which 1 send you and hope it will prove interesting — I re- 
regret I cannot join you. 
Yours very truly, 
Nicolas Pike. 
Port Louis, Mauritius, July 18 th 1872. 
My dear Mr. Bouton, 
“ During the last two months I have been very success- 
ful in procuring specimens of the large fish of this Ocean. 
Since I sent you the Ginglymostoma concolor to see I have 
obtained 2 other Sharks, a fine Histiophonts entire, !J heads of 
varieties if not different species of the same and a Bay. Be- 
sides these I am indebted to Mr. Bewsher for the loan of a 
large Shark when fresh stuffed, to get its proportions and a 
sketch of it. I have now drawings of 0 different species of 
Sharks, of, I believe, as many genera. As I know you take an 
equal interest with myself in all that concerns the Fauna of 
Mauritius I send you a brief account of these voracious crea- 
tures. 
“The Shark so kindly lent me by Mr Bewsher has a 
terrible incident connected with it. The men of the M. M. 
Str. Emirne caught it, and it was exposed for sale in the Ba- 
zaar. "When cut open a clasp knife and belt with the bone of 
a man’s arm were found in it. This, of course gave rise to 
the most horrible surmises, especially as it was rumoured that 
a few days previously a sailor had deserted from a vessel in the 
harbour, and was supposed to have been attacked by a shark 
before he could reach the shore. If it was so, the poor fellow 
had paid a woeful penalty for desertion. 
• 
“ This Shark is 13 feet 7 inches in length, with a girth at 
the gills even when stuled and shrunk of 4 feet G inches. 
The strong Caudal is contained 4J times in the total length, 
and with the large lower lobe it must have had immense power 
in it. 
“ One reads and hears of horrors relating to Sharks, but 
it is only on examining the mouth of one that I think a true 
idea of their powers of destruction is fully realised. It made 
me shudder as I contemplated the jaws of this brute, which 
