FISH FOOD

The sad case of a man who risks his life for an ideal only to have the world disbelieve him seems to be the inevitable fate of Mr. Heilner, of the American Museum of Natural History, who recently returned from an expedition to the Bahamas with the news that sharks are harmless. According to Mr. Heilner, he exposed himself to these much-maligned creatures repeatedly without their showing the least interest in him as a possible article of diet. It is to be feared, however, that even before such evidence the popular mind will cling to its delusion. Generations of South Sea Island movies in which a struggle between the hero and a shark is a prominent feature cannot but have their effect, and few frequenters of our bathing beaches will feel inclined to imitate Mr. Heilner's experiments if anything resembling a shark should appear off the shore.

Human vanity would come to the front, too, in supporting the sceptics. The scorn shown by the sharks for Mr. Heilner may not have been the fault of the fish but of the man. Even sharks have their preferences, and Mr. Heilner might not have come up to their standards. And who is the man who would admit himself to have physical qualifications so poor that a shark would not think him worth the eating? Far better not to offer him the opportunity.