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Title: Thrilling Stories Of The Ocean
From Authentic Accounts Of Modern Voyagers And Travellers; Designed
For The Entertainment And Instruction Of Young People

Author: Marmaduke Park

Release Date: October 6, 2004 [EBook #13604]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THRILLING STORIES OF THE OCEAN ***

Produced by Josephine Paolucci, Juliet Sutherland. The scans made
available through the generosity of the Internet Archive Children's
Library.

[Illustration: THE WHITE SHARK.]

THRILLING

STORIES OF THE OCEAN.

FROM AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS OF MODERN

VOYAGERS AND TRAVELLERS;

DESIGNED FOR THE

ENTERTAINMENT AND INSTRUCTION

OF

YOUNG PEOPLE.

BY MARMADUKE PARK.

With Numerous Illustrations.

PHILADELPHIA:

C.G. HENDERSON & CO.,

NO. 164 CHESTNUT STREET.

1852.

[Illustration: THE WHITE SHARK]

STORIES OF THE OCEAN.

VOLNEY BECKNER.

The white sharks are the dread of sailors in all hot climates, for they
constantly attend vessels in expectation of anything which may be thrown
overboard. A shark will thus sometimes traverse the ocean in company
with a ship for several hundred leagues. Woe to the poor mariner who
may chance to fall overboard while this sea-monster is present.

Some species of sharks grow to an enormous size, often weighing from one
to four thousand pounds each. The skin of the shark is rough, and is
used for polishing wood, ivory, &c.; that of one species is manufactured
into an article called _agreen_: spectacle-cases are made of it. The
white shark is the sailor's worst enemy: he has five rows of
wedge-shaped teeth, which are notched like a saw: when the animal is at
rest they are flat in his mouth, but when about to seize his prey they
are erected by a set of muscles which join them to the jaw. His mouth is
so situated under the head that he is obliged to turn himself on one
side before he can grasp any thing with those enormous jaws.

I will now give you an account of the death of a very brave little boy,
who was killed by a shark. He was an I