accidents seldom happened, for though the shark looked so fierce and formidable, it was, on the whole, a stupid creature, and the awkward position of its mouth on the under surface of the head, rendering it always necessary for it to turn found on its back before it could bite at anything above it, always allowed a tolerably agile person to elude its snap. Legs and arms had occasionally been lost by inhabitants of Colymbia, but such accidents rarely, if ever, occurred to the hunters. The victims were almost invariably unarmed turtle-hunters or pearl-fishers, whom the sharks caught unawares.
The body of the shark, which was the perquisite of the professional huntsmen, was sold by them to the butchers. The flesh, though coarse and strong flavoured, finds a ready sale among the poorer people, and the skin is in great request for professors' collars, for straps and book-covers.
During my stay in Colymbia, I frequently enjoyed the exciting sport of shark-hunting. Sometimes we would fail to find a fish; sometimes the game, after being wounded, would make his escape, with a harpoon sticking in his body; sometimes we were so fortunate as to meet with two in company, both of which we would bag; and, sometimes, we would capture a brace or two of turtle, which we would bring home alive. But I need not detail the incidents of other shark-hunts, as I have so much more to say about other features of life in Colymbia.
