SOME FACTS ABOUT SHARKS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 55, 5 March 1879, Page 4

SOME FACTS ABOUT SHARKS.

[•• Once a Week."}

The size of the shark has been immensely exaggerated, but as to the dangerous nature qf the creature there can be no manner of doabf. Ancient mariners are prone to loeg stories,, storiep, which it is their delight to dress up aod magnify. Tales are told of fihaikf tb«t have reached 50. fa 4Q, and even 60 fee*. We may lake such toeaaorcmeais tor what they are worth. Tie white shark, the most daogerous of its kiqd, fe Seldom more than ten or

twelve feet from bead to tail. No shark that ever yet swam could bite a man in two, or oat off his leg. The teeih of the shark, do doubt, are very terrible. They are arranged row behind row, and the muscles of ita jaw are of enormous strength. Bat they are fitted for rending and lacerating rather than cutting or severing. The action is not that of the shears, bat rather of (ho harrow or scarifier. A shark of ten feet or even eight, will seixe a man by the thigh and strip the fleah from off bis leg dowu to the heel, or, with a firm grasp of the limb, and a powerful twist of the body in the water, it may possibly tear the leg out of the socket. Such an injury, of coarse, is a* instantly fatal as if the assailant had bat its victim in half. There is, indeed, no need to exaggerate the size of the shark ; for a small shark if hungry, is practically as daogeroas as a large one. Aay old fisherman knows that a dogfish will attack a cod or a ling twice its size, and with five or six well directed bites, tear it to pieces. It in thus that a shark deals with a man. Following him, and descending before him, it rolls over, and mounting, with its jaws uppermost, inflicts a wound sufficiently deadly to cause instant collapse. It is the old story of the wolf attacking the deer or the buffalo. Indeed, the bigbly-colo*ed stories among sailors as to the siz?, strength, and voracity of the shark, do much to create a dangerous sense of security. When a ship is swinging at anchor in the tropics, the hands will think nothing of venturing overboard for a plunge, if such /ew sharks as are seen about are ijttle, if at all bigger than men ; or late at night, they will drop noiselessly over the side and swim ashore. Their simple faith is, that unless a shark be almost large enough to swallow a man, he will not attack him; while it ia aleo a part of the forecastle creed that the shark sleep* at night. Many an English sailor ba« paid the penalty of his life for rashness of this kind ; and the ignorance current among eailors of the shark and its habits is, .when we remember how the brute swarms in tropical seas, something almost astonishing. The old story of the two pilot fish which always accompany the shark and guide him to his prey, is slitl grnvely repeated, and aa gravely believed. It is also an article of nautical faith that the shark knows when there is a dying man oa bpard ship, and will follow the vessel for miles, guided by some sinister and demoniacal instinct. As a matter of fait, there <we always some pilot fiah to he Sfeo in the wake of a vessel, only that they are not noticed unless a shark in their company calls attention to them; while a Bhaik will, for reasons of its own. invariably follow u vessel, whether there be a sick man on it or nor.