HAMMKR-HEAD. 



71 



to which JKliuii adds the great danger to which sailors are 

 exposed by it, (B. ix, c. 49;) to all of which Lacepede unites 

 his testimony, with such additional horrors, however, as must 

 cause his readers to feel surprise when they read, the adven- 

 turous voyages of sailors in every variety of climate, without 

 finding the mention of this fish or of any injuries they have 

 suffered from it. 



That it is an eager, daring, and savage fish may be granted; 

 but the limited size of its mouth forbids the mighty grasp which 

 the White or Blue Sharks would take of an object; and it 

 seems probable that the nature of its food is not of that 

 indiscriminate kind as theirs is known to be. 



The Hammer-head is a rare wanderer to our seas; and only 

 a few examples are on record of its occurrence in the British 

 Islands; which, therefore, are probably the most northern limit 

 of its range. Besides the one hereafter mentioned, and of which 

 the skeleton is preserved in the Museum of Natural History 

 at Penzance, another was taken at Yarmouth, in the year 

 1829, and a third at Tenby, in Wales, both mentioned by Mr. 

 Yarrell, and the latter also by L. W. Dillwyn, Esq., in his 

 "Fauna of Swansea." This last example was a female, and in 

 August was found to contain thirty-nine young ones ready for 

 exclusion. Mr. Lowe found this fish in Madeira; and Risso 

 says it is not uncommon in the Mediterranean from July to 

 September. 



In the month of November, 1834, some fishermen of Newlyn, 

 in Cornwall, on hauling their nets, found a large fish entangled 

 in them and almost dead. It proved to be the Hammer-head, 

 or Balance Shark; and from the notes derived from this source, 

 and from another of smaller size, not a British specimen, and 

 but poorly preserved, the following description of this species 

 is derived: The length of the newly-captured example was 

 an inch less than ten feet; girth of the body three feet seven 

 inches; the head slightly festooned in front, flat, and in breadth 

 three feet; an eye at each extremity of the expansion as large 

 as that of an ox. The nostrils at the anterior edge of the 

 expansion, not far from the eyes. A remarkable bone lies 

 across this expansion of the head, being an elongation of the 

 orbital processes of the skull. The mouth in shape like a 

 horse-shoe, with three rows of teeth in the upper jaw, and 



