530 SQUALID.E. 



This species of Lernaca is perhaps the largest known : it mea- 

 sured three inches in length. 



A Shark of this species is the subject of a memoir by 

 M. Valenciennes in the first volume of the " Nouvelles An- 

 nales clu Museum, 1 '' where, on account of the very small size 

 of its fins, it is called Scymnus micropterus. This example 

 was found stranded on the sand in the large bay at the 

 mouth of the Seine, about the end of March or the begin- 

 ning of April 1832. It was bought, and afterwards exhi- 

 bited at Havre, and was finally sent to Paris, very well 

 preserved, considering its bulk, in a large wooden box sa- 

 turated with pyroligneous acid. The whole length was 

 thirteen feet. The head and body compressed ; numerous 

 mucous pores, arranged in lines, about the head and neck ; 

 the body deepest in the region of the pectoral fin ; the first 

 dorsal fin smaller than the pectoral fin, and preceded by 

 an elongated ridge or keel on the back of the fish, formed 

 by a fold or duplicature of the skin ; the second dorsal fin 

 preceded also but by a shorter keel : the fish was a male ; 

 the ventral fins and sexual appendages, or claspcrs, very 

 small ; no anal fin ; the colour dark brown on the back, grey 

 on the belly. 



No doubt exists that this species lives in the northern 

 seas, agreeing in dentition with preserved parts of a large 

 Shark brought from North Cape, and also Avith the fish 

 described and figured by Gunner in the second volume of 

 the Natural History Memoirs of Drontheim, p. 330, plates 

 X. and XI. under the name of Squalus Carcharias. M. 

 Blainville, as seen by the synonymes at the head of this sub- 

 ject, calls this species in the " Faun. Franc. 11 Norwegianus. 

 Mr. Hutchinson, in his letter to me referring to the Durham 

 specimen, particularly mentions, and shows in his drawing, 

 the small size of the fins, which accounts for the sluggish 

 movements of the fish as described by Captain Scoresby. 



