Zoology.] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Fishes. 



Mr. M. Dusting, of Portland, who sent me a sample be had taken 

 from the intestines when giving me notice of the capture of this 

 Shark, the species of which he correctly recognised. 



The tongue is very small, with little movable part, the greater 

 portion of the mouth being occupied by the gill-openings. 



This is the largest species of the whole class of Fishes (one 

 noted by Yarrell, at Brighton, being 36 feet long), and as, like many 

 Whales, and unlike other Sharks, it migrates in shoals of one to 

 two hundred individuals, each of which is worth from £30 to £50, 

 it is of great value where any peculiarity in the ocean (as at the 

 " Sunfish Bank," one hundred miles west of Clew Bay, on the west 

 coast of Ireland) induces it to come regularly within reach of the 

 fishermen. The liver only is taken, the rest of the body being left 

 at about a day's sail out of sight of land where they are found. 

 The liver weighs about two tons, and yields 10 or 12 barrels (eight 

 to the ton) of the finest oil, like spermaceti. The specimen figured, 

 after its liver was taken out, was brought by railway to Melbourne, 

 and attracted crowds in the streets as it came up Swanston-street 

 on two of the largest lorries fastened together, drawn by a long 

 train of horses to a stable-yard, where it was exhibited during the 

 race week ; the hot weather rendering it useless as a specimen for 

 the Museum afterwards. The teeth and portion of skin were pre- 

 served, and all the measurements and the drawings completed 

 before it defied approach. 



This is the first good figure of this famous Shark which has 

 been published. The figures of Yarrell and Couch represent the 

 anal fin as too small and much too far back ; Home's figure of a 

 male, exactly the same size as ours, in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1809,* omits the anal fin altogether, but is otherwise the best 

 of those hitherto published ; the skin seems too smooth, the lower 

 jaw too long, and the concavity of the profile is not represented. 

 The concavity of the profile (as well as the size of the mucous pores 



* "An anatomical account of the Squal its maximus (of Linnaeus), which, in the structure of its stomach, forms an 

 interesting link in the gradations of animals between the Whale Tribe and cartilaginous Fishes," by Everard Home, Esq., 

 F.B.S., read May, 1809. 



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