Page:An account of a voyage to establish a colony at Port Philip in Bass's Strait.djvu/59

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ward of their labours, than the sailors to tear out the bowels, and examine the stomach of the shark. Here they often recover the pieces of meat used to bait the hooks, which his sagacity had extricated; and after cutting off his fins[1], saving his jaws as objects of curiosity, and reserving a few slices from the tail to eat, the carcase is again committed to the watery element.

The peculiar property of tropical atmospheres in corroding iron, is well known: it is almost impossible to keep any article of that metal from rusting, even for an hour, without the applica-

  1. The silvery fibres of sharks' fins are manufactured into artificial flying-fish, for catching dolphins, &c. These fins also form a considerable article of trade between India and China; the Chinese putting them into their soups.
tion