the joyful shouts and loud hurrah that attested how
welcome was its reception, reached us who were in the cabin below.

On the following day as the ship, driven by a light wind, moved lazily
through the waters, we observed two large sharks following in her
wake. The sailors were at great pains to take them, but greatly to the
vexation of themselves and the passengers who entered quite as eagerly
into this sport as themselves, the cunning fish disdained the bait and
swam slowly away. To my enquiries of why they had not seized upon the
meat thrown out as lure, sharks having always been represented as
voracious and greedy, one of the passengers answered,

"It all depends on whether or not they are hungry. In some soundings,
where fish abound, I have seen sharks by the hundred, which not only
refused the bait, but did not injure the men who went into the water
to bathe or accidentally fell overboard. Nevertheless, like yourself,
I wonder that these creatures did not bite, for the sharks of the
Atlantic are considered particularly greedy."

"I can tell ye," said the boatswain, who was standing close by, "why
they did not take hold of the bait. It is because we are just in the
track of the Brazilian slave ships; they throw many of the niggers
overboard, for many die, and there's no doubt but the creatures find
richer morsels than a bit of salt beef."

"Are there not several species of sharks?" I inquired of a passenger
who seemed well acquainted with natural history in all its variety.

"A great many," he answered, "and the largest and most rapacious is
the white shark, to which class those that have just left us belong.
He moves through the Atlantic as if it was his own realm, but is
seldom seen beyond the solstitial point, preferring the latitude
within the tropics; he is also found in the Mediterranean sea, and
also in the gulf of Lyons, where he is peculiarly savage. The blue
shark, seen in the English channel, is seldom dangerous; others,
larger but less harmless, infest the northern seas, and are often
pursued by the whalers merely for sport. Then there is the spotted or
tiger shark, not very large but exceedingly rapacious; the hammer
shark, which derives its name from the peculiar shape of its head, and
the ground shark, which is the most to be dreaded of any, since he
lies deep down in the water, and rising suddenly, seizes his prey
without any one suspecting his vicinity."

"Suppose a man is so unfortunate as