The Ships Being Now Almost Shattered To Pieces By The Tempest,
And The Men Quite Spent With Incessant Labour, A
Calm for a day or two
gave them some relief, and brought such multitudes of sharks about the
ships as
Were dreadful to behold, especially to such as were superstitious.
Ravens are reported to smell out dead bodies from a great distance, and
some think that sharks have the same perceptive faculty. They have two
rows of sharp teeth in the nature of a saw, with which if they lay hold of
a mans leg or arm they cut it off as with a razor. Multitudes of these
sharks were caught by a hook and chain, but being able to destroy no more,
they continued in vast numbers swimming about. They are so greedy that
they not only bite at carrion, but may be taken by means of a red rag upon
the hook. I have seen a tortoise taken out of the stomach of one of these
sharks that lived for some time afterwards aboard the ship; and out of
another was taken the head of one of its own kind, which we had cut off
and thrown into the water as not fit to be eaten, and the shark had
swallowed it, which to us seemed strange and unnatural that one creature
should swallow the head of another as large as its own; this however is
owing to the vast size of their mouth which reaches almost to the belly,
and the head is shaped like an olive.
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