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It is even doubtful whether the moa did not live down to the days of the earliest colonists, for remains of Maori encampments are still discovered, with the ashes of the fireplace even now unscattered, and the close-gnawed bones of the gigantic bird lying in the very spot where the natives left them after their destructive feasts. So, too, with the big sharks.
Upon entering the swash I thought of the sharks which the Hatteras fishermen had told me frequently seized their oars, snapping the thin blades in pieces, assuring me, at the same time, that mine would prove very attractive, being so white and glimmering in the water, and offering the same glittering fascination as a silver-spoon bait does to a blue-fish.
The white sharks are the dread of sailors in all hot climates, for they constantly attend vessels in expectation of anything which may be thrown overboard. A shark will thus sometimes traverse the ocean in company with a ship for several hundred leagues. Woe to the poor mariner who may chance to fall overboard while this sea-monster is present.
Floating in the water above the diggers, were three immense sharks. Their cruel mouths were partly open, showing three rows of big teeth, and they were slowly turning over on their backs to make a sudden rush and devour the men and boys. Owing to the peculiar shape of its maw a shark can not bite until it turns over.
Notwithstanding their superstitious fancies, the seamen were glad to use a part of these sharks for food, being very short of provisions.
Soon the Lapwing was gliding through the warm waters of the equatorial seas, and those of the passengers who had never visited such regions before, were immensely interested by the sight of dolphins, sharks, and especially flying-fish. "I don't believe in 'em," said Mrs Mitford to Mrs Massey one day as they stood looking over the side of the ship.
He was scarcely prepared for this discovery, as he was under the impression that the bay on the shore of which he stood was completely hemmed in by the reef; and he was fully aware that if such had been the case the smooth water inside would be quite free from sharks, as these pests never voluntarily pass through broken water.
With a kind of motherly instinct she forestalls my every wish, and at the end of a few days had already known my habits better than one of those London sharks and furies would have known them at the end of a century.... My thoughts go back to her of Florence, whom I have just left. Equally efficient, she represented quite a different type.
Even sharks were disturbed in their sinister and slimy habits of life by this outburst of Krakatoa and no wonder, when it is recorded that in some places "the sea looked like water boiling heavily in a pot," and that "the boats which were afloat were swinging in all directions."
Why, at the last International Fishery Congress a speaker told of a plague o' dogfish which not only attacked lobsters, but swallowed pots an' all." Colin looked incredulously at his friend. "That's the story," the other said; "you don't have to believe it. I don't." "But after all, a dogfish is a shark, and aren't sharks the most vicious creatures o' the sea?"
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