SHARK. 
manifest the least degree of fear at being in such 
alarming company. 
Notwithstanding the voracious appetite of this 
fish, it sometimes requires a little address to catch 
him. The bait used for this purpose by our sea- 
men is a piece of beef, or pork, firmly fixed upon 
a strong hook, attached to an iron chain ; this is 
thrown into the sea, and the end made fast to the 
stern of the ship. In this situation it seldom re- 
mains long without a visitor, who examines the 
beef, and after swimming round will sometimes 
leave it untouched, as if apprehensive of the snare : 
when he appears thus undetermined, the sailors will 
draw the bait towards them, as if intending to take 
it entirely away ; and this stratagem frequently suc- 
ceeds : the hungry glutton, alarmed at the idea of 
losing it for ever, rushes forward to his destruction, 
and swallows the iron hook. When he finds this 
fatal instrument lodged within his maw, he exerts 
his utmost efforts to disengage himself; and finding 
it impossible to disgorge the hook, he tries with all 
his might to cut the chain : thus he continues his 
unavailing task, till, quite spent, he suffers himself 
to be drawn on board the ship, and dispatched. 
This enormous creature bears many hard blows be- 
fore he is killed, and struggles terribly with his de- 
stroyers ; who are careful to avoid being struck by 
his tail, with which he sometimes gives very dan- 
gerous blows. 
M. Geoffroy has added something to the interest- 
ing part of Natural History, in his account of the 
