SHARKS.
(TO TEL EDITOR or TEE " spacmva.°1 Sin,—About two years ago, whilst sailing alone off the coast of one of the Bahama Islands, I saw what I believed to be at shark leap out of the water. I was not absolutely certain that it was a shark, as I was looking in another direction, and only had my attention drawn by the splash as the animal left
the water. I therefore questioned a number of natives, both black and white, and they all agreed that sharks do jump out of water, though rather, as I understood, in play, like a salmon, than in pursuit of their prey. The one that I saw was only about twenty yards away, and, as nearly as I can recollect, it jumped about 2 ft. out of water.—I am, Sir, &c., NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN. Highbury, Moor Green, Birmingham, June 9th.
[To Tax Horror. or TER " SPWILTOR."1 SIR,—Here is the substance of a story more than once told to me by the late Sir Frederick Evans, then hydro- grapher to the Admiralty. "In our survey of Torres Strait over fifty years ago I have seen the crew trice up a shark by the tail from a whip at the yard-arm, leaving his head a few feet from the surface, and in that position he has literally been torn to pieces by his voracious fellows leaping out of the sea to get at him." Coming from such a witness, that sharks do leap out of the water is not open to doubt by yours, &c.,
W. B.
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