A trove of shark lore, a suspenseful adventure yarn, and a decent man's account of the way other decent men behave toward one another when they are under great pressure -- Geoffrey Wolff * Newsweek * Analytical, truthful and intimately personal... Throughout one learns considerably about the history of sharks, whales, professional divers, and other such creatures of the sea... Matthiessen is a most qualified observer of men and nature * Natural History * For its natural history, for its persistent courage and for its terrifying portrait of White Death, this book... will live in the memory of all who read it * Atlantic * Peter Matthiessen is beyond dispute the best nature writer working today -- Peter Farb