The Naturalist.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 262, 2 December 1876, Page 2

The Naturalist.

ABOUT SHARKS. Sharks are usually spoken of as the most rapacious and abhorrent of 6ea-animals. That they are rapacious is undeniable, but why they are so is not generally considered. We Avill go a little into the matter. The shark, a fish of the family "Squalida*," Avhen quite in his infant state, and only a feAv inches in length, exhibits a pugnacity almost without parallel for his age. He will attack fish two. or three times larger than himself; or, if caught, and placed for observation on the deck of a vessel, he resents handling, and, with unerring precision, strikes a finger placed on almost any part of his body. Two things contribute to the shark's determinate fierceness. In the first place, Ave .may refer to his teeth, for of these engines of destruction nature has been to him particularly bountiful ; and this species of bounty he has a peculiar pleasure in exercising. If he could speak, he would probably tell us that, besides being troubled with his teeth, which he could not help keeping iu use, he had beon gifted with enormous abdominal viscera, and that, more particularly, a third of his body is occupied by spleen and liver. The bile and other digestive juices which are secreted from such an immense apparatus, and poured continually into the stomach, tend to stimulate appetite prodigiously— and what hungry animal with good teeth Avas ever tender-hearted? In truth, a shark's appetite can never be appeased ; for, in addition to this bilious diathesis, he is not a careful masticator, but hastily bolting his food, produces thereby not only the moioseness of indigestion, but a whole host of parasites, which goad as well as irritate his intestines to that degree that the poor squalus is sometimes quite beside himself from the torment, and rushes, like a blind Polyphemus, through the Avaves in search of anything to cram down his maw that may allay such urgent distress. He does not seek to be cruel, but he is cruelly famished. "It is not 1," expostulates the man in the croAvd, "that is pushing ; it is others behind me." The poor wretch must satisfy, not only his OAvn ravenous appetite, but the constant demand of these internal parasites, either with dead or living food ; and therefore it is that, sped as from a catapult, he pounces on a quarry, and sometimes gorges himself beyond what he is able to contain. Having said thus much of the rapacious habits of the Squalida?, Ave would have it remembered that every man's hand is against them, and that, no tortures aro considered too seA'ere to inflict upon them Avhen caught. If they are relentless to man and every living thing around them, their insatiable appetite renders them equally destruetiA'e to their oavh species, and we of the white population of this globe ought to recollect, Avith some show of gratitude, that they ahvays prefer an African to a European ; for although they are fond of men of any colour, a negro is to them as the choicest venison. Commerson tells us that one of the atrocious amusements practised on board slave-ships Avas to suspend a dead negro from the boAvsprit, in order to watch the efforts of the sharks to reach him, and this they Avould sometimes effect at a height of more than tAventy feet above the leA r el of the sea. Wonderful are the tales that sailors tell of the various things that have been found in a shark's stomach, and it Avas thought that any substance that would enter its mouth was at all times acceptable. The following, which details a cruel trick, as described in the GlasgOAV Observer, dispels this illusion ; " Looking over the bulwarks of the schooner," writes a correspondent to this journal, " I saAV one of these Avatchf ul monsters Avinding lazily backwards and forAvards like a long meteor ; sometimes rising till 'his nose disturbed the surface, and a gushing sound like a deep breath rose through the breakers ; at others, resting motionless on the water, as if listening to our voices, "and thirsting for our blood. As we were

watching the motions of tin's monster, Bruce; (|i little lively negro, and my cook) suggested the possibility of destroying it. This AVas'ibriefly to heat' a fire-brick in the. stove, AA-rap it up hastily in some old greasy cloths, as a sort of disguise, and then to heave it overboard. This was the work of a few minutes, and the effect was triumphant. The monster followed after the hissing prey. We saw it dart at the brick like a flash of lightning, and gorge it instanter. The shark rose to the surface almost immediately, and his uneasy motions soon betrayed the success of the manoeuvre. His agonies became terrible ; the Avatcrs appeared as if disturbed by a violent squall, and the spray Avas driven over the taffrail Avhere Ave stood, while the gleaming body of the fish repeatedly burst through the dark waves, as if Avrithing Avith fierce and terrible convulsions. Sometimes Ave thought Ave heard a shrill belloAving cry, as if indicative of anguish and rage, rising through the gurgling Avaters. His fury hoAvever Avas soon exhausted ; in a short time tho sounds broke away into distance, and the agitation of the sea subsided. The shark had given himself up to the titles, as unable to struggle against the approach of death, and they Avere carrying his body unresistingly to the beach."