NICHOLS & MURPHY : LONG LSLAND SHARKS. 25 
In 'The Ri\er.side Natural Hi.stor\-,' Dr. J. S. Kiiigsle\- relates that 
the .stomach of a white shark was once found to contain " a tin can, a 
number of mutton bones, the hind quarters of a ])ig, the head and fore 
quarters of a bull-dog, a quantity- of horseflesh, and other and smaller 
things — as the auction bill says — too numerous to mention." 
At the reque.st of the writers, Dr. Frederic A. Lucas, Director of the 
American Mu.seum of Natural History, has ver\- kindl\- written for this 
bulletin the subjoined account relating to the status of sharks as man- 
eaters. Dr. Lucas's long experience, coupled with his repeated critical 
investigations of "shark stories" that arise i^erennially along our 
seacoa.st, eminently fit him to write with finalitx' upon a subject so 
generalh- mi.sapprehended. 
"A question frequently asked is "what is the danger of being 
attacked by a shark about here?" and the answer is, that it is infinitely 
less than that of being struck by lightning. 
" True, not a summer passes without some " maneater " being taken 
along the New Jersey or Long Island coast and sometimes the ' ' monster ' ' 
reaches a length of so much as 8 feet, but these " maneaters " usually 
resolve themselves into harmless, if ugly-looking, sand sharks. 
"Sharks belonging to the two really dangerous species, the white 
shark and the blue shark, are occa.sionall\- taken off our coasts, but the.se 
are stragglers from trojiical waters, and, so far as I am aware, there is no 
record of an>- full}- grown individual ever having been taken within 
hundreds of miles of New York. Ca.ses of shark bite do now and then 
occur, but there is a great difference between being attacked b\- a shark 
and being bittoi by one, and the cases of shark bite are usualh- found to 
have been due to some one incautiou.sly approaching a shark impounded 
or tangled in a net, or gasping on the .shore. And, under such circum- 
stances, almo,st any creature will bite. 
"Some years ago, about 1890, Mr. Herman Oelrichs put the shark 
question to a practical test b}' offering, through the columns of the Nezv 
York Sun, a reward of 5?i500 " for an authenticated ca.se of a man having 
been attacked by a shark in temperate zcaters. ' ' That this reward was 
never claimed shows that there is practically- ?/o danger of an attack from 
a shark about our coasts. 
"In the summer of 191 5, the subject was revived in the Vimes, but 
again without eliciting any authenticated case of such an attack, though 
several reports were received or published of such occurrences having 
happened—" quite a while ago " — at some time pa.st. 
