BASKING SHARK. 01 



due attention to their natural shape; on which account a figure 

 taken from a stuffed specimen is likely to be less exact than 

 even a drawing made under the first-named inconveniences. 

 The figure I give is from a specimen taken in Cornwall before 

 the example had fallen into the hands of preservers; and the 

 description is from the same, enlarged from other sources, and 

 especially from the authority of Dr. Fleming, in his "History 

 of British Animals." 



The food of this fish is not known, and it is doubtful 

 whether it takes a bait. Of course no line would be sufficiently 

 strong to hold it; and I have been told that the example 

 referred to in the description, of thirty-one feet in length, was 

 able to break a six-inch hawser, and the doubling of a net 

 alone was able to control its strength. 



We also refer to the circumstance that this fish has been 

 confounded with the Whales, to which mistake its quiet and 

 peaceable habits did not a little contribute; for there are times 

 when it appears to enjoy the sunshine and a calm, and then 

 it basks so much at ease as to suffer itself to be approached 

 without shewing any sign of being alarmed, or of a disposition 

 to inflict injury. From this habit it has received the name by 

 which it is now generally known, and from which also it has 

 been termed the Sunfish; although this latter name has led to 

 a remarkable error in Lacepede; who, mistaking it on that 

 account for the Orthogoriscus mola, which is also called the 

 Sunfish, has described the latter as having been found of the 

 surprising length of twenty-five feet. By his reference to 

 Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall, his mistake is rendered 

 plain. 



I have already taken occasion to mention the confusion that 

 has resulted from the supposition, so long retained, that this 

 fish was to be classed among the Whales; and a remarkable 

 and a somewhat amusing result was the consequence of the 

 error; which has had the effect of unexpectedly bringing us 

 into acquaintance with it under circumstances the least to be 

 expected. Whales, even of large size, were at one time a 

 fashionable dish at noble and royal tables; and the Dolphin 

 and Porpoise especially were admitted to that dignity so lately 

 as in the time of King Charles the First; although Willoughby 

 and others are so candid as to admit that they were not 



