We are told that, in the reign of Queen Anne, some of the men of an English merchant-ship, which had arrived at Barbadoes, were one day bathing in the sea, when a large Shark appeared, and was rushing upon them. A person from the ship called out to warn them of their danger; on which they all immediately swam to the vessel, and arrived in perfect safety, except one poor man, who was cut in two by the Shark, almost within reach of the oars. A comrade and intimate friend of the unfortunate victim, when he observed the severed trunk of his companion, was seized with a degree of horror that words cannot describe. The insatiate Shark was seen traversing the bloody surface in search of the remainder of his prey, when the brave youth plunged into the water, determining either to make the Shark disgorge, or to be buried himself in the same grave. He held in his hand a long and sharp-pointed knife, and the rapacious animal pushed furiously towards him; he had turned on his side, and had opened his enormous jaws, in order to seize him, when the youth, diving dexterously under, seized him with his left hand, somewhere about the upper fins, and stabbed him several times in the belly. The Shark, enraged with pain, and streaming with blood, plunged in all directions in order to disengage himself from his enemy. The crews of the surrounding vessels saw that the combat was decided; but they were ignorant which was slain, until the Shark, weakened by loss of blood, made towards the shore, and along with him his conqueror; who, flushed with victory, pushed his foe with redoubled ardour, and, by the aid of an ebbing tide, dragged him on shore. Here he ripped up the bowels of the animal, obtained the severed remainder of his friend’s body, and buried it with the trunk in the same grave. This story, however incredible it may appear, is related in the History of Barbadoes, on the most satisfactory authority. Had nature allowed this fish to seize his prey with as much facility as many others, the Shark tribe would have soon depopulated the ocean, and reigned alone in the vast regions of the sea, till hunger would have forced them to attack and ultimately destroy each other; but the upper jaw of this devouring animal, is so constructed as to offer, by its prominency, an impediment to the Shark’s easily seizing his prey; and consequently when on the point of catching hold of anything, he is obliged to turn on one side, which troublesome evolution often gives the object of his pursuit time to escape. The flesh of this fish is of a disagreeable taste, and cannot be eaten with any kind of relish, except the part near the tail. Twenty different species of this family are known, and the number of different families of the Shark tribe is very great. THE GREENLAND SHARK, (_Selachus maximus_,)