MAN-EATER SHARK. A shark which is known or believed to devour men: speeificallv, the great 'white' or 'blue' shark (carrharodOn carrharias. or RondrIcti) of the family Lam This is one of the largest of the sharks, reaching a length of 30 or 40 feet. It' frequents all temperate and tropical seas, and is occasion ally taken on both the Atlantic and Pacific eoasts of the 'United States. Its body is stout, and the caudal fin large and strong. giving great swimming power; the nose is square and pointed, the eyes prominent, the mouth very large and armed in both jaws with live rows of triangular teeth. which are peculiar in being serrated. In a specimen 3614 feet long, it is recorded, the teeth measured 1% inches across the base. There have frequently been dredged in the Central Pa cific Careharodon teeth 4 inches across the base, indicating sharks more than twice as large; and it is believed that the owners of these teeth were living within a comparatively recent period. The color of the skin is by no means 'white,' but of the line of lead, with the tips of the pectoral tins black. This monster ranges the seas seizing and devouring whatever it is able to overcome; a specimen taken in California had a young sea lion weighing 100 pounds in its paunch. Like other sharks, they follow ships for many days. feeding upon the offal thrown overboard, and upon other fishes attracted by the same bait. That the larger ones might easily bite off the leg or even the whole body of a man is not to be doubted; and unquestionably many such casual ties' have occurred to persons in tropical seas, al though experienced swimmers, such as the pearl divers, profess to fear them little, being able to frighten them away, or avoid their rush, and even to stab them to death with a knife.
The earliest remains of this genus of sharks have been found in the Upper Cretaceous beds of Texas. In the Eocene marls of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, especially in New Jersey and North Carolina, the teeth of Carcharodon are quite abundant and form an important source of the phosphate on account of which the deposits are mined. These fossil teeth often attain a size of six inches in width at the base and six and one half inches in height. This implies an owner fully 100 feet in length. Contemporary with this predecessor of the present species was an other, distinguished by having a little projection or 'ear' on each side of each tooth near its base, and this attained a length of 50 or 60 feet, and must have aided its larger relative in clearing the Miocene ocean of Zeuglodon and other great marine reptiles. They swarmed, as is known from the frequency of their teeth in the Ter tiary deposits of many parts of the world, and seem to have been especially numerous along our southeastern coast. The teeth of these, as well as of modern sharks, also abound on the floor of the deeper parts of the present oceans.