4 JUNE 1898, Page 16

A PLEA FOR THE SHIRK.

[To THE EDITOR OF IRE "SPECTATOR:] SIR,—No doubt can attach to Captain Marescanx's bona fides, but I beg leave to say that among South Sea whale- men, whose experience of sharks is certainly more varied and full than that of any other people, the idea of a leaping shark is utterly scouted. I saw more sharks in one month of my whaling voyages than in fifteen years of ordinary sea service, and in all my own whaling experience I failed to induce one, under any circumstances, to leap out of water. Is it not possible that other fish may have been mis- taken during that night for sharks P—I am, Sir, Sze., F. T. BULLER.