Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-16

THHERE is a shark panic along the
II Atlantic seaside. Such a scare Is
seasonable thing. and the shark
panic in way has taken the place of
the sea serpent sensation which used
to disturb the peace and quiet of sea
side resorts. But in the latest shark
panic there is substance. and at least
three fatalities have resulted from attacks
on bathers
The shark is no myth. though it has
been alleged by scientists that some of
the traits of character given to the
shark by sailormen and travellers of
the sea are mythical. In the National
Museum one may see lifelike casts OF
several varieties of sharks exhibited
in association with many other of the
giant fishes of the world.
Against the wall of one of the big ex-
hibit rooms of the museum is the cast
of the great white shark. and the card
of explanation attached says: "A large
shark known also as the maneater,
which reaches a length of thirty feet
and occurs in temperate and tropical
seas" The faithfully nodded, colored
and posed cast was made from a female
white shark, and the specimen was
thirteen and one-half feet long. 1t was
captured at Provincetown, Mass.
There is also cast of a fine speci-
men of the dusky shark, a cruel-look-
ing fish which seems to have an map
propriate name. for this shark, so far
from being dusky, is a silver gray with
a blush tinge, and appears lustrous
rather than dusky. This is the usual
variety of shark which sometimes at
tains length of ten feet. and occurs
along the Atlantic coast of temperate
North America. Travellers by sea often
have this shark pointed out to them.
Captures of the species have frequently
been made in Chesapeake bay, and now
and then specimen is taken in the
lower Potomac river. At no distant
time sharks must have been quite COM
mon in the Potomac river, for among
the pebbles on the beaches along the
lower Potomac sharks teeth may be
found in considerable numbers. There
is in the National Museum a notable
specimen of the mackerel shark so
named for it's fondness for that fish
and from the fact that it is usually
found following or among schools of
mack erel.
These and other sharks are exhibited
along with specimens of tilefish. black
groupers, wolf fish. ocean sunfish or
headfish, spotted skates. Goldfish. open"
or brilliant, highly colored moonf1sh.
sailfish. tarpon, Mississippi catfish. At
lantic salmon, sturgeon, sawhsh and
devil fish.
y few steps from the shark exhibit
one comes to the collection of whales.
porpoises and other big fish. The mas
ter specimen of this exhibit is a cast
of sulphur bottom whale seventy
eight feet long. There is a white whale,
white as a polar bear. which frequents
the Gulf Of st. Lawrence; the pygmy
sperm whale Of the southern seas, often
found off the coast of Virginia and
the Carolinas, and the gray whale Of
the north Pacific. A large number of
porpoises are on view. among them
being the porpoise or putting pig of
the north Atlantic and north Pacific
oceans. the harbor porpoise, the striped
porpoise and the bottle-nose porpoise,
which is the common porpoise of the
Atlantic coast In this family of big
fish are specimens OF the gray gram
pus, the common dolphin. the black
ish-a fish black as tar and big as a