Captain Basil Hall gives a spirited sketch of the appearance and capture of one of those dreaded fishes; a capture in which the whole ship's company, captain, officers, young gentlemen inclusive, shout in triumphant exultation as the body of the shark flounders in impotent rage on poop or forecastle.
"The sharp-curved dorsal fin of a huge shark was seen rising about six inches above the water, and cutting the glazed surface of the sea by as fine a line as if a sickle had been drawn along it: 'Messenger, run to the cook for a piece of pork,' cried the captain, taking the command with as much glee as if an enemy's cruiser had been in sight. 'Where's your hook, quartermaster?' 'Here, sir, here,' cried the fellow, feeling the point, and declaring it was as sharp as any lady's needle, and in the next instant piercing with it a huge junk of pork weighing four or five pounds. The hook, which is as large as one's little finger, has a curvature about as large as a man's hand when half closed, and is six or eight inches in length, while a formidable line, furnished with three or four feet of chain attached to the end of the mizen topsail halyard, is now cast into the ship's wake.
Plate XXV.—Shark Fishing.
"Sometimes the very instant the bait is cast over the stern the shark flies at it with such eagerness that he actually springs partially out of the water. This, however, is rare. On these occasions he gorges the bait, the hook, and a foot or two of the chain, without any mastication, and darts off with the treacherous prize with such prodigious velocity that it makes the rope crack again as soon as the coil is drawn out. Much dexterity is required in the hand which holds the line at this moment. A bungler is apt to be too precipitate, and jerk away the hook before it has got far enough into the shark's maw. The secret of the sport is to let the monster gulp down the whole bait, and then to give the line a violent pull, by which the barbed point buries itself in the coat of the stomach. When the hook is first fixed, it spins out like the log line of a ship going twelve knots.
"The suddenness of the jerk with which the poor devil is brought up often turns him quite over. No sailor, however, thinks of hauling a shark on board merely by the rope fastened to the hook. To prevent the line breaking, the hook snapping, or the jaw being torn away, a running bowline is adopted. This noose is slipped down the rope and passed over the monster's head, and is made to join at the point of junction of the tail with the body; and now the first part of the fun is held to be completed. The vanquished enemy is easily drawn up over the taffrail, and flung on deck, to the delight of the crew."
The flesh of the shark is leathery, of bad taste, and difficult to digest. Nevertheless, the negroes of Guinea feed upon it, but not until it has been made tender and eatable by long preservation. In many parts of the Mediterranean coast small sharks are taken from their mother's belly and eaten. The under part of adult sharks is also eaten by the fishermen after the bad parts have been removed. In Norway and Iceland this part of the animal is dried in the air during the most part of the twelve months. The Icelanders also use the fat of the animal; the liver of one of them, according to Pontoppidan, will furnish a great quantity of oil.
We have thus, with the care it deserves, painted the portrait of the shark. The original is by no means beautiful; but, frightful as it may be, our description would be incomplete if we did not add that divine honours have been granted to this monster of the waters. Man worships force; he knows the hand which crushes, the teeth which rend. He respects the master or the king who strikes, and he venerates the shark. The inhabitants of several parts of the African coast worship the shark; they call it their joujou, and consider its stomach the road to heaven. Three or four times in the year they celebrate the festival of the shark, which is done in this wise.
They all move in their boats to the middle of the river, where they invoke, with the strangest ceremonies, the protection of the great shark. They offer to him poultry and goats, in order to satisfy his sacred appetite. But this is nothing; an infant is every year sacrificed to the monster, which has been reared for the purpose from its birth; it is fêted and nourished for the sacrifice from its birth to the age of ten. On the day of the fête it is bound to a post on a sandy point at low water; as the tide rises, the child may utter cries of horror, but it is abandoned to the waves, and the sharks arrive. The mother is not far off; perhaps she weeps, but she dries her tears and thinks that her child has entered heaven through this horrible gate.
