522 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



they are caught chiefly in winter through holes in the ice, close to the surface, either on 

 hook and line, or sometimes even with short-handled gaffs." 



They are utilized chiefly for their liver oil, a large specimen sometimes yielding as 

 much as 30 gallons or more (up to about 50% of the volume of the liver). In Greenland 

 the flesh is also dried for dogfood, and in Iceland small amounts have been consumed for 

 human food in the past. But it produces a sort of intoxicant poisoning if eaten fresh, 

 whether by man or by dogs," although it is wholesome when dried. Fishermen regard 

 them as harmless; old tales that they attack Greenlanders in their kayaks appear to be 

 mythical. 



Range. White Sea, Spitzbergen, Bear Island, Norwegian Sea, East and West Green- 

 land, south regularly to the North Sea and Kattegat, less commonly to the southern part 

 of the North Sea, accidentally to the mouth of the Seine (one specimen) and perhaps to 

 Portugal, in the eastern Atlantic; regularly to the northern part of the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence, in the western Atlantic, and less commonly to the Gulf of Maine. Whether its range 

 extends along the Arctic coasts of Eurasia, or to the coasts of Arctic North America west- 

 ward from Baffins Bay, is not known. It is represented in the North Pacific by a form 

 which, while close, appears to be distinct (for discussion, see p. 515). 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. This shark is so plentiful along the Greenland 

 side of Davis Strait and in Bafiins Bay that in the first decade of the present century the 

 yearly catch there was around 32,000." Similarly, during fishing experiments with long 

 lines off West Greenland by the "Ingolf" Expedition at least 20 per cent of the hooks 

 were bitten off by them. They have been reported from Hudson Strait"* and are plentiful 

 along the east coast of Labrador, where specimens are often entangled in seal nets and 

 where a recent author also reports catching five through one hole in the ice." 



No doubt its normal range includes the outer coast of Newfoundland, although we 

 find no definite statement as to its numbers, there being only one published record for the 

 Grand Banks.^° It is sufficiently numerous to be a nuisance to fishermen in the Straits of 

 Belle Isle, at least in some years, and inward along the north shore of the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence;^' specimens have even been reported from the Saguenay River^' and from the 

 lower reaches of the St. Lawrence.'^ But while it undoubtedly occurs on the southern side 

 of the Gulf as well, it is at least not numerous enough there for its presence to have occa- 



25. For a description of the West Greenland fishery, see especially Jensen (Mindeskr. Jap. Steensfrup. Ffids., Kbh., 



J [30], 1914: 15). 

 z6. For accounts, see Jensen (Mindeskr. Jap. Steenstrup. F0ds., Kbh., 2 [30], 1914: 12) and Clark (Science, N. S. 



i', 1915: 795)- 



27. Jensen, Mindeskr. Jap. Steenstrup. F0ds., Kbh., 2 (30), 191+: 9. 



28. Vladykov, Contr. Canad. Biol., N. S. 8 (2), 1933: 5. 



29. Grenfell, Labrador, 19 10: 351. 



30. Rep. Newfoundland Div. Fisher. Res., Fisher Res. Lab. (1934), 1935; 79. 



31. Stearns, Proc. U.S. nat. Mus., 6, 1883 : 123-1 ;,. 



32. Whiteaves, Cat. Canad. Pinnep. Cetacea, Fish., i886: 4. 



33. At Metis; Dawson, Canad. Rec. Sci., 4, 1S91 : 304. 



