THE NUKSE SHARK. 
241 
pain was less severe than that following the sting of 
a wasp, or even than the puncture of a Tahanus ; 
but he described it as having three distinct paroxysms 
(if I may use such a term for so small a matter). The 
pain was not of long duration. 
THE NURSE SHARK. 
About the end of September my lad Sam informed 
me that the time was now arriving for striking 
Nurse,” which he so described as to make me in- 
terested in the observation of one. A day or two 
afterwards he told me that he had just seen one 
brought in at Crab-pond, about two miles from 
Bluefields, and that he had left it alive, rolling and 
writhing in agony on the beach ; the captors having 
cruelly cut out the liver, which was all they cared 
for, without taking the trouble to kill the wretched 
animal. I immediately rode olf to the place, and 
found the creature just dead; it was a species of 
Scyllium, seven feet six inches long ; and its flesh}'^ 
cirri, about two inches long, depending from the 
extremity of the muzzle, indicated it to be the 
Sc. cirratum of Cuvier. 
Having made a sketch of it as it lay, I returned, 
determining to secure it on the morrow. Early in 
the morning, I proceeded thither with my two ser- 
vants, furnished with knives, a hammer, a bill, and 
other implements for dissecting and skinning it. 
The operation was laborious and unpleasant, as de- 
composition had already made the odour offensive, 
though twelve hours had scarcely elapsed since death ; 
M 
