nning bowline
knot, is always adopted. This noose, being slipped down the rope, and
passed over the monster's head, is made to jam at the point of
junction of the tail with the body. When this is once fixed, the first
act of the piece is held to be complete, and the vanquished enemy is
afterwards easily drawn over the taffrail and flung on the deck, to
the unspeakable delight of all hands. But, although the shark is out
of his element, he has by no means lost his power of doing mischief;
and I would advise no one to come within range of the tail, or thrust
his toes too near the animal's mouth. The blow of a tolerably
large-sized shark's tail might break a man's leg; and I have seen a
three-inch hide tiller-rope bitten more than half-through full ten
minutes after the wretch had been dragged about the quarter-deck, and
had made all his victors keep at the most respectful distance. I
remember hearing the late Dr. Wollaston, with his wonted ingenuity,
suggest a method for measuring the strength of a shark's bite. If a
smooth plate of lead, he thought, were thrust into the fish's mouth,
the depth which his teeth should pierce the lead would furnish a sort
of scale of the force exerted.

I need scarcely mention, that, when a shark is floundering about, the
quarter-deck becomes a scene of pretty considerable confusion; and if
there be blood on the occasion, as there generally is, from all this
rough usage, the stains are not to be got rid of without a week's
scrubbing, and many a growl from the captain of the after-guard. For
the time, however, all such considerations are superseded; that is to
say, if the commander himself takes an interest in the sport, and he
must be rather a spoony skipper that does not. If he be indifferent
about the fate of the shark, it is speedily dragged forward to the
forecastle, amidst the kicks, thumps, and execrations of the
conquerors, who very soon terminate his miserable career by stabbing
him with their knives, boarding-pikes, and tomahawks, like so many
wild Indians.

The first operation is always to deprive him of his tail, which is
seldom an easy matter, it not being at all safe to come too near; but
some dextrous hand, familiar with the use of the broad axe, watches
for a quiet moment, and at a single blow severs it from the body. He
is then closed with by another, who leaps across the prostrate foe,
and with an adroit cut rips him open from snout to tail, and the
tragedy is over, so f