Shark

A large, fierce, and powerful fish, called the tiger of the ocean. It sometimes reaches a length °f 35 feet. It has a strong, stout body, and a tail of irregular shape, its upper section being longer than its lower. Its skeleton does not consist of bone, but of hard gristle; instead of scales its skin is set with hard knobs, and the gill slits on the side of the neck have no covering. Its mouth is on the underside of its head, and it has to turn before bit¬ ing. It has several rows of teeth pointing backward and imbedded in the lining of the mouth. The fe¬ male lays two eggs, with leathery cases, that have strings at each of the four corners. (See Egg'.) The sharks are voracious, and in nearly every case carnivorous. Some sharks, as the basking shark and the whale shark, grow to an enormous size. Most sharks are harmle to man, but some species, as the white and the blue sharks, will attack and devour man. Another species, the man-eater shark, found in all tropical and tem¬ perate seas, grows to a length of 36 feet.