Why have most of the sharks very numerous teeth?

Because they may supply such as may be lost. The white shark has more than 200, lying on each other in rows, almost like the leaves of an artichoke. Those only, which form the front row, have a perpendicular direction, and are completely uncovered. Those of the subsequent rows are, on the contrary, smaller; have their points turned backwards, and are covered with a kind of gum. These come through the covering substance, and pass forward when any of the front row are lost. The teeth are at first soft and cartilaginous, but gradually become hard as ivory.

The white shark weighs as much as 10,000 pounds, and even whole horses have been found in its stomach. - Blumenhach.

Voracious as are the habits of sharks, the South Sea islanders are not in the least afraid of them. Portlock, the navigator, says: " I have seen five or six large sharks swimming about the ship, where there have been upwards of 100 Indians in the water: they seemed quite indifferent to them, and the sharks never offered to make an attack on any of these people, and yet at the same time, they would greedily swallow our baits." The perseverance with which sharks follow a vessel at sea, containing a dead body, would prove their nasal organs to be very acute. In a recent voyage from Bombay to the Persian Gulf, the smell of a dead body of an Arab sailor of a crew, attracted several sharks round the ship, one of which, eight feet in length, was harpooned and hauled on board.

As a curious fact connected with the natural history of the Bible, we may mention that, in 1828, the Rev. Dr. Scot, of Corstorphine, read before the Wernerian Society, a paper on the great fish that swallowed up Jonah, showing, that it could not be a whale, as often supposed, but was, probably, a white shark. We may observe, that the whale is a gratuitous identity, since the text is " a great fish." - (Jonah, c. ii. v. 7.)

Why is the hammer-headed shark also called the balance fish?

Because it has a long obtuse head with eyes fixed at the extremities, and its mouth in the centre. Unlike other sharks, the above is more remarkable for its structure than size, it being little more than 6 feet in length.

Why is the pilot-fish so called ?

Because it is always found accompanying or preceding the formidable shark.

Why is the saw-fish so called?

Because it has a broad, sword-like weapon in front of the head, with twenty-four or more teeth inserted into its lateral edges.

Why is the sturgeon said to have given rise to the fabulous tales of monstrous sea-serpents of the North?

Because it often happens that many of them follow in a row one after another. The sturgeon is an important fish - as well for its flesh, as for the caviare prepared from its roe. It sometimes weighs nearly 1,000 pounds. - Blumenbach.

Why is the sun-fish so called?

Because of the phosphorescent light of the sides and belly of the living fish. It weighs, occasionally, as much as five cwt.

Why was the sucking-fish formerly believed able to stop a ship in full sail?

Because it can attach itself most firmly, by means of the grooves on the back part of its head, to ships, sharks, etc.

Why is a certain fish called the sea-horse ?

Because of the resemblance of its front part to a horse's head and neck. In dying, it bends itself like an S; and then resembles the knight, at chess.

Why is the sea-dragon so called ?

Because it has large and wide pectoral fins, which resemble expanded wings.