audience," he remarked, "and I'm afraid I shall disappoint you
all, for I have no yarn to spin, only a few items of information to give
in regard to other varieties of sharks than are to be found on this
coast.

"The white shark, found in the Mediterranean and the seas of many of the
warmer parts of the world, is the largest and the most feared of any of
the monsters of the deep. One has been caught which was thirty-seven
feet long. It has a hard skin, is grayish-brown above and whitish on the
under side. It has a large head and a big wide mouth armed with a
terrible apparatus of teeth--six rows in the upper jaw, and four in the
lower."

"Did you ever see one, papa?" asked Grace, shuddering.

"Yes, many a one. They will often follow a ship to feed on any animal
matter that may be thrown or fall overboard, and have not unfrequently
followed mine, to the no small disturbance of the sailors, who have a
superstitious belief that it augurs a death on board during the voyage."

"Do you believe it, captain?" queried little Walter.

"No, my boy, certainly not; how should a fish know what is about to
happen? Do you think God would give them a knowledge of the future which
He conceals from men? No, it is a very foolish idea which only an
ignorant, superstitious person could for a moment entertain. Sharks
follow the ships simply because of what is occasionally thrown into the
water. They are voracious creatures, and sometimes swallow articles
which even their stomachs cannot digest. A lady's work-box was found in
one, and the papers of a slave-ship in another."

"Why, how could he get them?" asked Walter.

"They had been thrown overboard," said the captain.

"Do those big sharks bite people?" pursued the child.

"Yes, indeed; they will not only bite off an arm or leg when an
opportunity offers, but have been known to swallow a man whole."

"A worse fate than that of the prophet Jonah," remarked Betty. "Do the
sailors ever attempt to catch them, captain?"

"Sometimes; using a piece of meat as bait, putting it on a very large
hook attached to a chain; for a shark's teeth find no difficulty in
going through a rope. But when they have hooked him and hauled him on
board they have need to be very careful to keep out of reach of both his
teeth and his tail; they usually rid themselves of danger from the
latter by a sailor springing forward and cutting it above the fin with a
hatchet.

"In the South Sea Islands they have a c