THE LIVING WORLD. 
73 
•of man, is used to attract, not repel, the beings that it would “have more 
acquaintance with.” It buries itself in the. mud so as to expose only its long 
feelers, or fish lines, and is very successful in “ welcoming ” its prey “ with 
hospitable hands to bloody graves.” 
The White Shark [Carcharinus vulgaris ), frequently called the ocean tiger , 
is a man-eater, and his greed, rapacity, and quickness of movement generally 
reward him for his sus¬ 
tained pursuit of ships. Its 
only enemy in the sea is 
the sperm-whale, which at¬ 
tacks it apparently simply 
to rid itself of a rival power. 
The shark, were it not for 
his unreasonable pugna¬ 
city, might easily escape 
the whale, but it seems to 
be quite willing to be killed 
if it can inflict inj ury upon 
its adversary. The shark 
has been made to contrib¬ 
ute to commerce its oil and 
its hide. His stomach seems 
to be even more curious than THE ANGUm {L<jphitts pi sca t orius) . 
the pockets of a small boy, 
for he will eat even substances that are wholly without nutrition, and which are 
indigestible. If lacerated by hooks ) he will none the less readily and greedily return 
to the bait. Shark-hooks are by preference 
baited with pork, and when the creature has 
been drawn within reach from the vessel he is 
harpooned, and his tail and fins withdrawn 
from the water by means of the hook-line 
and the harpoon line. He is then relatively 
helpless, and after a third rope has been 
passed around his tail, he is easily brought 
on deck. Having driven a handspike through 
his throat and cut off his tail, the sailors have 
succeeded in rendering their dreaded enemy 
powerless, and certainly are but little in¬ 
clined to spare him any suffering. A singu¬ 
lar device for killing a shark was invented by 
a negro boy. He heated a brick and threw 
it to the shark, which, though able to carry 
about with impunity to its stomach the head 
and horns of a large goat, could not contend successfully with internal combustion. 
It is said that on one occasion thirty-three natives of Tahiti were wrecked, and 
undertook to save themselves on a hastily constructed raft. Their weight 
kept the raft somewhat below the surface of the water, and a school of sharks 
attacked them and killed thirty out of the thirty-three. Twenty out of twenty- 
two men from a wrecked vessel fell a prey to sharks, and the heroism of their 
