THE SHARK.
(Squalus carcharias, or Carcharias vulgaris.)
“Increasing still the terrors of the storms,
His jaws horrific arm’d with threefold fate,
Here dwells the direful Shark.”
The Shark differs from the whale in not being one of the mammalia. It is cold-blooded, and does not suckle its young. It has no lungs, and its mode of breathing is like that of other fishes, except that its gills are fixed, and the water escapes by five apertures on each side. The body of the Shark is elongated, and tapers gradually from the head to the tail, or is very slightly dilated in the middle. Its muzzle or nose is rounded, and projects very much over the mouth, the nostrils being situated on the under side. The male shark is smaller than the female, and differs from it in appearance, in possessing two elongated appendages, one of which is attached to the hinder edge of each of the ventral fins. The purpose which these appendages are intended to serve is not known. Some of the Sharks produce their young alive, and others lay eggs contained in horny cases of an oblong shape, with long tendrils at each of the four corners. After the young Sharks are hatched, these curious cases are often washed on shore, and are called mermaids’ purses.
The bones of the Shark are like gristle, and very different from those of most other fishes. Hence all the fishes with bones similar to those of the Shark are placed in a separate order, and called cartilaginous fishes.
The White Shark is sometimes found weighing nearly two thousand pounds. The throat is often large enough to swallow a man; and a human body has sometimes been found entire in the stomach of this tremendous animal. He is furnished with six rows of sharp triangular teeth, which amount in all to a hundred and forty-four, serrated on their edges, and capable of being erected or depressed at pleasure, owing to a curious muscular mechanism in the palate and jaws of the Shark. The whole body and fins are of a light ash-colour; the skin rough, and employed to smooth cabinet work, or to cover small boxes or cases. His eyes are large and staring, and he possesses great muscular strength in his tail and fins. Whenever he spies, from the deepest recesses of the sea, a man swimming or diving, he darts from the place, up to his prey, and if unable to take in the whole, or snatch away a limb, he follows for a long time the boat or vessel in which the more nimble swimmer has found a safe and opportune retreat: but seldom does he let any one escape his jaws, and get off entire. Sir Brook Watson was swimming at a little distance from a ship, when he saw a Shark making towards him. Struck with terror at its approach, he cried out for assistance. A rope was instantly thrown; but even while the men were in the act of drawing him up the ship’s side, the monster darted after him, and, at a single snap, tore off his leg.
We are told that, in the reign of Queen Anne, some of the men of an English merchant-ship, which had arrived at Barbadoes, were one day bathing in the sea, when a large Shark appeared, and was rushing upon them. A person from the ship called out to warn them of their danger; on which they all immediately swam to the vessel, and arrived in perfect safety, except one poor man, who was cut in two by the Shark, almost within reach of the oars. A comrade and intimate friend of the unfortunate victim, when he observed the severed trunk of his companion, was seized with a degree of horror that words cannot describe. The insatiate Shark was seen traversing the bloody surface in search of the remainder of his prey, when the brave youth plunged into the water, determining either to make the Shark disgorge, or to be buried himself in the same grave. He held in his hand a long and sharp-pointed knife, and the rapacious animal pushed furiously towards him; he had turned on his side, and had opened his enormous jaws, in order to seize him, when the youth, diving dexterously under, seized him with his left hand, somewhere about the upper fins, and stabbed him several times in the belly. The Shark, enraged with pain, and streaming with blood, plunged in all directions in order to disengage himself from his enemy. The crews of the surrounding vessels saw that the combat was decided; but they were ignorant which was slain, until the Shark, weakened by loss of blood, made towards the shore, and along with him his conqueror; who, flushed with victory, pushed his foe with redoubled ardour, and, by the aid of an ebbing tide, dragged him on shore. Here he ripped up the bowels of the animal, obtained the severed remainder of his friend’s body, and buried it with the trunk in the same grave. This story, however incredible it may appear, is related in the History of Barbadoes, on the most satisfactory authority.
Had nature allowed this fish to seize his prey with as much facility as many others, the Shark tribe would have soon depopulated the ocean, and reigned alone in the vast regions of the sea, till hunger would have forced them to attack and ultimately destroy each other; but the upper jaw of this devouring animal, is so constructed as to offer, by its prominency, an impediment to the Shark’s easily seizing his prey; and consequently when on the point of catching hold of anything, he is obliged to turn on one side, which troublesome evolution often gives the object of his pursuit time to escape. The flesh of this fish is of a disagreeable taste, and cannot be eaten with any kind of relish, except the part near the tail.