Zoology.] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Fishes. 



supposed to be confined, was found entangled in the nets of the 

 fishermen, and having wrapped the nets round itself by rolling and 

 struggling, it became exhausted and was killed. In other countries 

 where fishermen have recorded their meetings with this monster, 

 the accounts agree in showing it to be a quiet, sluggish creature, 

 quite destitute of the ferocity of other Sharks, swimming along, 

 showing its back and dorsal fin above water, and with its mouth 

 open to catch its small, floating food, like a Whale, and when 

 basking quietly on the surface being so indifferent to the approach 

 of a boat that the man may feel it without any alarm or movement 

 of anger on the part of the Shark, unless harpooned, when it darts 

 to the bottom with great force and velocity, and unlike a Whale, 

 which must come up to breathe, it stays below, making it a 

 dangerous captive for any ordinary fishing vessel. 



The excessively small size of the teeth, far smaller in proportion 

 than in any other Shark, and the very small size of the gullet, shows 

 a curious approach to the Whales, and departure from the usual 

 structure of Sharks. And I find another extremelv curious and 

 interesting point, not before noticed, viz., that its food, as with many 

 Whales, is often composed of myriads of the minute, floating, oceanic 

 Pteropodous Mollusca. Of the scores of Basking Sharks that have 

 been opened in the Northern Hemisphere not one contained any 

 remains of fishes or large objects, and the food was, until now, 

 unknown. Linnaeus mentions Medusae, Pennant suggests sea-weeds, 

 and Mr Low says he found a pulpy red mass, which he likened 

 to bruised crabs, or the roe of Echini. Neither crabs nor Echini 

 could be obtained by a creature like this, too large to approach the 

 shallow shores, and in all probability what Mr. Low saw was what 

 I have here noted, the red pulpy mass filling the intestines of our 

 example being altogether composed of body and shells of a species 

 of the genus Cuvieria or Triptera, rather less than a line long, 

 fusiform, pointed, and slightly arched at posterior end, mouth con- 

 tracted, oblique (which might be named Cuvieria minor), the mass 

 being tinted of a "boiled-shrimp" red from the remains of the soft 

 parts, colored like the much larger Triptera rosea of Quoy and 

 (iaimard. I owe the knowledge of this food to mv vigilant friend, 



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