BLUE SHARK. 33 



seen to enter the mouth, the circumstance is to be explained 

 by the well-known rapacious appetite of the parent, rather than 

 by its affection; and that it will require both a closer and longer 

 continued observation to render the more amiable motive the 

 undeniable one. But that the young may be received into the 

 stomach and return without injury, ajjpears from evidence 

 adduced by Mr. Darwin, in his "Journal of a Voyage round 

 the World." "I have heard," says he, "from Dr. Allen, of 

 Forres, that he has frequently found a Diodon, floating alive and 

 distended, in the stomach of the Shark; and that on several 

 occasions he has known it eat its way, not only through the 

 coats of the stomach, but through the sides of the monster, 

 which has thus been killed." It is further known of all the 

 Sharks, that they possess a power of throwing up from the 

 stomach at their will anything they find indigestible; so that 

 the natural difficulties of the case are less than they appear. 



From its well-known destructive character fishermen are 

 always eager to shorten the race of this fish; and in consequence 

 many hundreds of them are caught in the course of a season. 

 But the capture is of no intrinsic value, for it yields no other 

 profit than some oil from the liver, and the body for manure. 



Jonston, in common with other writers, describes this fish as 

 having teeth with serrated edges; but Lacepede, vol. i., knows 

 no other but a Blue Shark with teeth specially described as 

 having edges not serrated. Risso, Icthyologie, p. 26, describes 

 a Blue Shark with the same characters as those of Lacepede; 

 but he also gives another species, which he rightly believes to 

 be the true Squalus glaucus of Artedi, and consequently of 

 Linnseus, having serrated teeth, but with brilliant silvery bands 

 on the sides; and which he names & Rondeletii. 



Willoughby's description is of a young one, having only one 

 row of teeth, which are serrated; but he says they are distant 

 from each other in the jaw; which remark can only refer to 

 their very early condition, for each succeeding row is followed 

 by another row, to close up the vacancies of that before it; 

 so that when in the progress of growth they become pressed 

 together, they overlap each other and become contiguous. 



I have already given in our general history of the Sharks, 

 a short account of the manner in which the teeth of this order 

 of fishes are formed, and finally proceed to their decay and 

 VOL. I. F 



