1132 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



them tor eiglitec'iipeiicf; and yet tlie Sliark liad heeii 

 hungry enough to goi"ge the bait. To tlie tishonnan the 

 Blue Shai'k causes great annoyance, as it robs the long- 

 lines of their bait, and cuts the line in two or twines 

 the latter i-otind its l)ody, l)y rolling over and over, 

 in such a coiu])licated manner that the task of disent- 



anglement i^ hopeless; and it plucks the tish out of 

 the net and tears asunder the meshes. 



The flesh of the Blue Shark is hard and has a nau- 

 seous smell, but it is eaten in Italj' by the poor. The 

 onlv othei- value of the fish consists in its oily liver 

 and finely shagrcened skin. 



Gems GALEORHINUS. 



Spirtirles opoi, flioiifili snnill. Pi'ihoicle af tlir fail iritlnuit transverse nntcli. Valve of the spiral intestine spiralli/ coiJed. 



Both in form of body and manner of life the ge- 

 nus of the Smooth Sharks closely resembles tlie pre- 

 ceding one; but they do not attain the same dimensions 

 as the man-eater Sharks, and the narratives related ever 

 since Pliny's time of combats between divers and 

 Smooth Sharks are probably based on a confusion with 

 Blue Sharks, though the Tope is sometimes large enough 

 to take a substantia] mouthful from the body of a 



swimmer. The ground-colour of the body, though it 

 does not distinguish them in the least from several 

 man-eating Sharks, has given rise to the name of 

 Gray Sharks (Nilsson in Skand. Fauna); but this 

 name is more commonly applied to another genus, also 

 occurring in the North Sea, namely Notidaniis. 



Only two species are known, one from Japan alone, 

 the other cosmopolitan in the tropical and temperate seas. 



THE TOPE (SW. HASTOIUEN Oli BETHAJEN). 



GALEORHINUS GALEUS. 



Platf L, fig. 2. 



Inner marffin of tlie teeth smooth, their outer margin ohliqiieli/ notched, finely serrated, hut u'ith a coarser denti- 

 cuJation at tlie base. Snout in yreat part fraushicenf and proJonyated in a more or less fattened form to a length 

 measuring about lialf that of the head. First dorsal fin at least about twice as large as the second and situated 

 nearer to the pectoral fns than to the ventral, the distance between it and the tip of the snout being slightly more 

 than "/, of the length of the liody to the beginning of the caudal fin. Beginning of the second dorsal fin sonie- 

 ivhaf further fonrard than that of the anal. Coloration above of a more or less light bluish gray, underneath white. 



Fig. 327. Teetli of the upper niul lower j:i\vs in a Tope (Galeorliimis yaleiis) 13 din. long, -3 nal. size. 



