123 



Dr. Storer read from his Report on the Fishes of Massa- 

 chusetts, portions of his account of Charcarias ohscurus. 

 At the time it was written he had not seen a specimen, 

 and it was only within the last week that one had been 

 sent to him from Provincetown, by Capt. Atwood. He 

 had placed it in the hands of Prof. Wyman for .dissection. 



Prof. Wyman proceeded to state some of the points in 

 the anatomy of this Shark as follows : 



The length of the specimen was six feet. In its general fea- 

 tures the intestinal canal conformed to the type of Plagiostome 

 fishes; its whole length was fifty-nine inches, namely, oesopha- 

 gus, six inches in length ; stomach, thirty -one inches, the pyloric 

 portion measuring fifteen inches, and the intestine twenty-two 

 inches. The large cavity of the stomach was of a cylindrical 

 form, three or four inches in diameter, terminating in a blunt 

 cone, and near its extremity the pyloric portion communicated 

 by a small aperture, and was continued in the form of a tube 

 about one inch in diameter, the muscular coat being quite thick. 

 The intestine in place of the spiral valve, which exists in most 

 of the Plagiostome fishes, was provided with a broad fold of 

 mucous membrane, attached by its edge lengthwise of the 

 intestine and rolled upon hself like a roll of paper; a similar 

 arrangement, according to Prof. Owen, exists in the allied 

 genera Zygoena, Scoliodon, Galeocerdo, and Thalassorhinus. 

 The breadth of this valve in its widest part was fourteen inches, 

 and it serves to increase very materially the absorbing surface 

 without adding to the length of the intestinal canal. 



The bile duct was two feet, and the gall bladder about seven 

 inches in length. 



There is a peculiarity in the olfactory lobes not mentioned by 

 Cuvier, Prof Owen, Wagner, or Stannius. The olfactory com- 

 missure divides into two branches, each nearly an inch in length, 

 and at the extremity of each is an olfactory lobe about one half of 

 an inch in diameter ; thus there are four distinct olfactory lobes 

 instead of two, which is the usual number in vertebrates. In 

 some of the rays, and in the Fox shark an approach to this sub- 

 division of the lobes exists. 



The internal ear is remarkable for the great size of its semi- 



