Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 83 



gins and rounded apices, their bases a little less than 1V2 times as long as base of dorsal, 

 their inner margins united for a very short distance posterior to cloaca in female, but 

 entirely separate in male, and partially enclosing the claspers, with their tips somewhat 

 elongate. Pectoral about i V3 times as long as broad, with broadly rounded apex, nearly 

 straight distal margin (moderately concave in smaller specimen) and very broad base, the 

 inner margin nearly or quite ^o as long as anterior margin. 



Color. Fresh specimens are variously described as coffee-colored (darkest along the 

 midline of back) or as very dark gray above; at least some specimens with a pale streak 

 along the side; lower surface of a paler shade of the same hue, or whitish. Of the preserved 

 specimens we have seen, a s^/'o-foot Mediterranean specimen is dark chocolate brown above 

 and paler below; one newborn from Cuba is mouse gray above and paler below; a 4- foot 

 Puget Sound fish is very dark gray, hardly paler below than above. 



Size. The fact that embryos of 650 mm. have been reported, with free-swimming 

 young as small as 429 to 700 mm., points to a length of 16 to 26 inches at birth. Maturity 

 is to be expected at a length of perhaps 6 to 6Y2 feet, large numbers of eggs having been 

 found in females of about 7 feet in Cuban waters. The recorded lengths of the larger 

 adults have ranged up to about 15V2 feet (4.82 m.). One of 26 feet 5 inches was reported 

 from Cornwall many years ago, a giant of its kind if its size was stated correctly." Re- 

 ported weights are about 220 lb. ( 100 kilo.) at 7 ft. 4 in. (2.25 m.) ; about 300-400 lb. at 

 about 9 ft.; about 528 lb. (240 kilo.) at about 13 ft. (4 m.); 1,085 lb. at 14 ft.; and 1,300 

 lb. at lift.'" 



Developmental Stages. The litters are certainly large, for 47 embryos were counted 

 in a female of 4.8 meters,'^ while fishermen have reported as many as 108 in a specimen 

 slightly smaller (4.5 meters long)." 



Habits. This shark is described as sluggish, hardly resisting when caught on hook and 

 line, but we have had no experience with it alive. Characteristically, it is a "ground" spe- 

 cies, usually living in at least moderately deep water. It is recorded from depths as great 

 as 800 to 1,875 meters off Portugal, at a little deeper than 100 fathoms off the Irish slope, 

 at about 90 to 560 fathoms in Scottish waters, including the Shetland-Faroe Channel, and 

 usually from 75 fathoms down to 300 fathoms off Cuba, where, in fact, few are caught 

 shoaler than 100 fathoms. And we have received photographs from Ollyandro del Valle of 

 three large ones (922, 1,400 and 1,682 pounds) taken in the deep water shark fishery 

 off the north coast of Cuba, said to have been hooked at 700 fathoms. On the other hand, 

 one of the earliest recognizable reports of it" was of a specimen from the coast of Holland 

 and therefore certainly from shoal water. Scattering specimens are caught in the North 

 Sea, in depths certainly no greater than 1 5 to 20 fathoms, and they have even been seen 

 swimming at the surface off Ireland. It has been suggested that this shark lies quiescent on 



14. Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., 2, 1880-1884: 308; this size has been frequently quoted since then for this species. 

 14a. Cuban specimens, reported by Luis Howell-Rivero. 15. Bolivar, Bol. See. esp. Hist, nat., 7, 1907: 207. 



16. Vaillant, Bull. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris, 1901 : 202. 



17. Spallanzani, Viag. Sicil., 4, 1793: Chap. 31, pi. 2. 



