306 
CARTILAGINEI. SQUALI DAE. 
ber of its component species^ belong the giants 
of the race, the Basking Shark {Selachus maximus)^ 
thirty-six feet in length, the Blue Shark {Car- 
charias glaucus), the Fox Shark {C. vulpes), and 
the dreaded White Shark (C. vulgaris). 
Many thrilling anecdotes of the fatal voracity 
of this last named monster of the deep are on 
record. One of these is recorded by a painting 
in Christ’s Hospital, London. The late Sir 
Brooke Watson was swimming at a little dis- 
tance from a ship, when he saw a Shark making 
towards him. Struck with terror at its approach, 
he cried out for assistance. A rope was imme- 
diately thrown to him ; but even while the men 
were in the act of drawing him up the ship’s 
side, the ferocious creature darted after him, and 
at a single snap, tore off his leg. 
The horrors inflicted on the miserable sufferers 
by the shameful traffic in men, during the transit 
across the Atlantic, are heightened by these 
ferocious animals. Their instinct apprises them 
of the probability of prey ; the air, tainted with 
the effluvia of a multitude of human beings 
crowded together in a tropical climate, probably 
awakening their vigilance and whetting their 
appetite. It is affirmed that numbers of Sharks 
almost invariably attend every slave-ship through- 
out her voyage, crowding around her stern, await- 
ing with eager expectation the unceremonious 
committal to the deep of the numerous wretches 
who fall victims to suffocation, disease, or de- 
spair. 
“ Here dwells the direful Shark. Lured by the scent 
Of steaming crowds, of rank disease, and death, 
Behold ! he rushing cuts the briny flood, 
Swift as the gale can bear the ship along ; 
