the Fishes of Massachusetts. 189 



pass backwards, decreasing as in the first row. The teeth of 

 the other five rows differ very much from tiiose spoken of, in 

 their form — they are shorter, wider and less stout — curving 

 towards the angle of the jaw ; those of the sixth and seventh 

 rows being shorter than those of the previous three rows. 

 Mitchill in his " Fishes of New York," refers to a shark 

 which he calls Sqiialus Atnericaiuis, Shaw. Subsequently to 

 this, he considered it an undescribed species in his '' Supple- 

 ment," and from the great size of its teeth, proposed for it the 

 name of Squalus macrodon^ or long-toothed shark. Om' fish 

 is probably identical with that species ; should it prove not to 

 be the same, upon the examination of a perfect specimen, it 

 must constitute a new species. 



The members of the Society will remember that in a '' Sup- 

 plement" to my Report, I added descriptions of the Lophius 

 FiscATORius and Squalls elephas, made from recent speci- 

 mens : and that while the reprint of my Report was passing 

 through the press, I was enabled to add a description of the 

 Squalus obscurus, also prepared from a recent specimen, in 

 the second volume of our Journal. 



In my account of the Orthagoriscus mola, when speaking 

 of the great elasticity of its flesh, I observed, ''its flesh is 

 sometimes used for balls." As this expression may appear 

 rather indefinite, I would remark that Dr. Yale, when wri- 

 ting respecting this species, says " what is most peculiar in 

 this fish is, an entire cartilaginous case, of an inch and a half 

 to two inches thick, covering the whole body — perfectly 

 white and milky in appearance, and very elastic. A small 

 ball of it, cut out and thrown, with moderate force, upon the 

 ground, will rebound from fifteen to twenty feet." And, in a 

 newspaper published in this city, several years since, in which 

 reference was made to a sj:>ecimen of this species having 

 been taken at one of the wharves, I found the following ob- 

 servation. " Several of the fish of this species have been 

 caught at Halifax, N. S. where the boys make balls of the 

 flesh, it being remarkably elastic." 



By the assistance of my friends, I have been enabled to of- 



