638 SUPPLEMENT ON 



of the Royal Navy, obtained from them eighteen leaguers of 

 sharks' oil, each leaguer containing 182 gallons, and he 

 might have obtained a much greater quantity, had he been 

 provided with a sufficient means of extracting it. A similar 

 occurrence took place, many years back, in Table Bay, 

 and it is said, that on both these occasions, the sea had 

 previously appeared of a red colour as seen from the 

 beach l . 



The white shark, which is cosmopolite, ferocious, and the 

 tyrant of all seas, must not be confounded with the Squalus 

 maximus of Linnaeus, the basking shark, which is not less 

 in dimensions than the white shark, but is confined to northern 

 latitudes, except occasionally when it visits the coasts of these 

 islands, and sometimes the north coast of France. The 

 branchial apertures across the neck distinguish it generally. 

 It is ovoviviparous, and frequently swims so near the surface 

 as to have the dorsal fin above water, and hence becomes 

 the more easily a victim to the harpoon. According to Pennant, 

 this species, which at present stands alone in its genus, dis- 

 tinguished by the branchial apertures nearly surrounding the 

 neck, is well known on the south and west coasts of Ireland 

 and Scotland, and those of Caernarvonshire and Anglesea. 

 They quit the bays of these Welch counties about Michaelmas, 

 and the Firth of Clyde and the Hebrides about July. They 

 have little of the fierce and voracious nature of the sharks 



1 Dimensions of a shark caught at Alexandria in 1827 : 



Extreme length YJ feet 10 inches 



Circumference of the large part of the jaw-bone. ... 1 8 



Do small part of do 1 



Spread of the jaws when extended 2 11 



Length of the back-bone when dried and cleaned. ... 9 1 



Circumference of the back-bone 10f 



Inside this fish the body of a man in a perfect state was found, and one 

 half of another in a state of decomposition. 



