64 BASKING SHARK. 



within their reach. These fish are worth from thirty-five to 

 fifty pounds each; and when so many as five hundred have 

 been killed in one season, I think this class of fishing should 

 be well attended to for the short season it lasts, if the weather 

 is favourable to it; especially as it is at a time when other 

 fish are out of season. The fishermen on the coast have a 

 superstition that the fish will leave the coast if the bodies of 

 those caught were brought to the shore." 



"The Sunfish has been met in large numbers off Tory Island, 

 and along the north-west coast of Donegal, where the Skerries 

 men have found them at different times lying so thick over 

 the ground where their cod-lines were set, that they would 

 not venture to put to sea in their open boats to lift the cod-lines, 

 for fear of the vSunfish striking their boats. They have 

 counted from sixty to a hundred basking in the sun, of a 

 morning towards the latter end of June; and they did not lift 

 their lines until late in the day, when the fish had gone down. 

 This proves that the Sunfishery is not confined to the Sunfish 

 bank of Clew bay, but shews that if the weather is not suited 

 for the fishery there, by following out the course taken by the 

 fish, if the weather turns out hot, they may make a good fishing 

 at any point from Clew bay to the Scotch Islands. It seems 

 to me that as the Sunfish bank is the first soundings made by 

 the fish coming in from the Atlantic, they may make a longer 

 stay here than in any other part; but boats have gone round 

 from the east coast to Sun-fish, beginning to work off" Tory 

 Island, and making a good season, though late, when they 

 arrived there." 



From the following paragraph, extracted from a newspaper 

 of Orkney, it is rendered probable that the Basking Shark 

 sometimes visits that neighbourhood: — "A very large Shark was 

 caught (near Whalsey) by one of the fishing boats (in Novem- 

 ber.) Xone of the fishermen here ever saw the like of it. 

 Its length was twenty-seven feet and a half; thickness sixteen 

 feet; from its nose to the last gill seven feet; its mouth when 

 open thirty inches across; the foremost fins five feet three inches; 

 and the tail from point to point seven feet. The liver yielded 

 one hundred and sixty-five gallons of oil, and was sold for 

 £16 10s. The whole body could not have been less than six 

 tons. It was caught by a six-oared boat, and the men had 



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