At the
same instant there was a scream of despair; the water was
crimsoned, and a bloody foam rose to the surface - the boy was
gone! Before the first shock of horror was well felt by those
around, a gallant fellow of the same regiment shot head first
into the bloody spot, and presently reappeared from his devoted
plunge, bearing in his arms one-half of the poor boy. The body
was bitten off at the waist, and the lower portion was the prize
of the ground shark.
For several days the soldiers were busily employed in fishing for
this monster, while the distracted mother sat in the burning sun,
watching in heart-broken eagerness, in the hope of recovering
some trace of her lost son. This, however, was not to be; the
shark was never seen again.
There is as much difference in the characters of sharks as among
other animals or men. Some are timid and sluggish, moving as
though too lazy to seek their food; and there is little doubt
that such would never attack man. Others, on the contrary, dash
through the water as a pike would seize its prey, and refuse or
fear nothing. There is likewise a striking distinction in the
habits of crocodiles; those that inhabit rivers being far more
destructive and fearless than those that infest the tanks.
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