300 CARTILAGINEI. — SQUALID^E. 



quantity from the liver, to which medicinal 

 properties are attributed. 



Family III. Squalid^. 



(Sharks.) 



We now come to a Family which contains the 

 most highly organized members, not only of 

 their Order, but of the whole Class of Fishes. 

 They are generally of large size, sometimes 

 gigantic ; are carnivorous and voracious ; and 

 some of them are universally dreaded for their 

 ferocity, their appetite for human flesh, their 

 strength, and the formidable array of teeth with 

 which their mouth is furnished. The White 

 Shark (Carcharias vulgaris), that terror of the 

 tropical seas, has been repeatedly known to cut a 

 man's body in twain at a single snap ; and accounts 

 are current of human bodies having been found 

 entire in the bodies of these terrible monsters. 

 Nor will this seem incredible when we consider 

 that this species is sometimes found twenty feet 

 in length. 



This and the following Family agree in having 

 the gills attached at their outer margin, with a 

 separate orifice to each, through which the water 

 escapes. These orifices are commonly five in 

 number. In the Sharks the body is lengthened, 

 and of the usual fish-form, that is, tapering from 

 behind the head to the tail, with but little swell- 

 ing in the middle ; the muzzle is more or less 

 pointed, and projects, so that the mouth opens 

 beneath ; the nostrils also are situated beneath 

 the snout. All the fins are distinct and free ; 



