74 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
commander adds to the many courageous acts of which men have proved them¬ 
selves capable. Although both of his legs were bitten off by the sharks, the 
commander continued to give his orders for the attempted preservation of his 
men, and ultimately succeeded in saving two of them. 
Shark fishing is a popular amusement at Nassau and along the Floridian 
coast. A dark night is preferred, and a steel hook having a six-inch curve is 
fastened to a chain, and this in turn joined to a line generally an inch in 
diameter. The shark generally makes several investigations before it swallows 
the bait, retiring to meditate after each new, inspection. The moment, how¬ 
ever, that he has swallowed the bait he starts a lightning express towards the 
bottom of the sea. He is now fretted, and checked, and played like a trout or a 
pickerel. As soon as he appears to be exhausted by his futile efforts,' the line 
is drawn in until the head 
appears above water, when 
a noose is thrown over the 
pectoral fins and the tail, 
and when the shark is near 
enough to the boat he un¬ 
dergoes amputation, first of 
the tail and then of the 
head. We are told by the 
naturalist, Figuier, that 
there are various peoples 
in Africa who celebrate 
“The Festival of the 
Shark.” Three or four 
times a year the natives row 
first to the middle of the 
river, and with odd ceremo¬ 
nials invoke the aid of the 
shark. Next they put be¬ 
fore the sharks what might 
figuratively be called burnt- 
offerings of goats and birds. 
Next, an infant, consecrated 
at its birth and fattened dur¬ 
ing ten years for the enjoy¬ 
ment of the shark, is bound to a post on the sand below low-water mark. 
Like Iphigenia at Aulis, the child is regarded as a votive offering, and like 
Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea, the child must await the 
attack of the sharks, though, unlike Androtiieda, it is not to be rescued by 
any Perseus. 
The Great Pilgrim Shark is not a man-eater; in fact, it is the most 
harmless and amiable of the shark family. It frequently attains the length of 
thirty-five feet and the weight of two tons.. 
The Nurse Shark is frequently harpooned by boys in order that it may 
be induced to drag them in triumph over the water. The devotion of the pilot 
fish to the shark has been the subject of many a story, and as it will not 
desert the shark it is sometimes netted while swimming about its master. 
GREAT PIEGRIM SHARK. 
