This freshly-killed brown shark — a man-eater — was laid out on the steps of Universal Studios’ Edgartown office sometime before dawn Friday. Trickles of blood oozed from the snout and belly of the six-foot long fish onto the steps of the Christine Pease House, but several movie workers simply stepped casually over the mess as they went to work, muttering about pranksters.

Mrs. Robert W. Nevin said it was the second such gift the film company received from the community. The first shark, which was also dumped on the steps, was only three feet long.

“We’ll go again,” said the assistant director, Tom Joyner, and into the valley of death waded The 400 with cameras to the right of them, and cameras to the left of them.

The water was cold, cold, cold, and what sunshine there was was most uncooperative. It was Sunday, the last day of June, and really not an ideal day to spend (all of it, every last bit of it) on the beach. The leftover northeast winds were still onshore and so were about 600 people.

The rumors about Jaws suddenly turned ugly three weeks ago. There were no more jokes about sharks being released of the Vineyard — the word was that Jaws was in trouble, even in danger of shutting down, because of horrendous cost overruns. All the whining about the weather from the movie-makers seemed more serious as wild stories about drastic measures circulated. The rest of the film would be shot in Hollywood, some said. A new austerity program might move the crew from the Kelly House to more modest accommodations, others suggested, perhaps to Cranberry Acres campground.

Peter Benchley, Author of Jaws, was in town this week. He came not to oversee the movie production of his book but to play a minor role in it. Richard D. Zantuck, one of the producers, called the tall, handsome former newscaster last Monday and asked him if he would like to make his debut as the newscaster on the beach in amity. Mr. Benchley — who fancies himself more like Hooper, the shark expert — was on the set two days later, collecting wages.

No matter what the calendar says about this, next week is the Fourth of July on the State Beach. All week, maybe even starting tomorrow if the weather is fine, Universal Studios will be filming the last sequences on land of Jaws — Monday the Fourth, Tuesday the Fourth, Wednesday...

Edgartown at any price is a bargain compared to friendly Amity. The white wooden houses of the Vineyard are kept just as neatly as those of Jaws’ picturesque resort; the waters are no less beautiful around the Island; even the inhabitants are similar. But somehow Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, the producers of Jaws, are running through about $30,000 a day in their imaginary town, rain or shine, film or no film. Last week they paused in their spree to explain that they didn’t even consider themselves big spenders.

One thing that a shark must do is to be constantly on the move, or else it is in trouble — and Jaws, the shark film in the making on the Vineyard, appears to have this characteristic in common with its subject.

The movie production of Jaws continues to roam the Island in much the same manner as a touring medicine show, playing in each of the Island’s towns.

Pennant-bedecked and fresh paint, the Steamship Authority’s newest ($3.8 million) and biggest ferryboat (230 feet, 1,000 passengers, 494 net tons of freight), the motor vessel Nantucket, docked Wednesday at the Oak Bluffs wharf for public inspection. The Regional High School band and hundreds of cheering spectators had welcomed her to Woods Hole at the end of her 871-mile voyage from her Jacksonville, Fla., shipyard birthplace. She goes into service from the mainland to Oak Bluffs and Nantucket today.