1144 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



Si/ii. Bn/i/de, Strum, Soucbit. Besl-r., pt. I, p. 273. Beinliaakall, 

 Oi.AFS., Reis. fsl., p. !I88. 

 6'i]ual>is tnaxivm^. GtN-NKu., Trondhj. Sulsk. Skr., vol. III. p. 

 33, tab. II; vol. IV, p. 14, tab. IV, fig. 1; LiN., Syst. 

 Nat., ed. XII, toin. I, p. 400; Penn. (Basking shark), 

 Brit. Zool, vol. III (ed. 177G), p. 89, tab. XIII; (?) F.^br., 

 Fna Groent., p. 130; Mitch., Trans. Litt., Phil. Soc, N. 

 York, vol. I, p. 486; Cuv. (snbg. Selache), Rcgn. Anim., 

 eil. 1, toiii. II, p. 1-29; F.M)., Fiscb. IsL, p. 20; NiLSS. 

 {/Sijualus), Prodr. Ichtln/ol. .SVonrf., p. 114; Yarr. (Se- 

 lachus), Brit. Fish., cd. 1, vol. II, p. 396; MCli,., Hle 

 (Selache), Plagiost., pp. 71 et 191; Dek. (Helachus), Zool. 

 N. York, pt. Ill, p. 357, tab. 63, fig. 208; Kb. (Selache), 

 Damn. Fisk., vol. Ill, p. 932; NrLSS., Skand. Fna, Fisk., 

 p. 720; Couch, Fish. Brit, hi., vol. I, p. 60, tab. XIV 

 ( + Poljiprosopus Rashleighanus, p. 67 + Polypr. macer, p. 

 68, tab. XV et vol. IV, ].. 421, tab. XV*); DOm., Hist. 

 Nat. Poi.'^s. (su. a Buff.), torn. I, p. 413, tab. 3, tig. 18; 

 Stor. (Selachus), Mem. Ainer. Acad. Arts, Sc., ii. ser., vol. 

 IX, p. 229, tab. XXXVII, fig. 3; Gthr (Selache), Cat. Brit. 

 Mus., Fish., vol. VIII, p. 394; Step (Selachus), Overs. D. 

 Vid. Selsk. Foih. 1873, p. 47, tab. II; Pav., Ann. Mus. Civ. 

 Genova, vol. VI (1874), p. 5, tabb. I— III; vol. XII (1878), 

 p. 348, tab. Ill; Coll. (Selache), Forh. Vid. Selsk. Chrnia 

 1874, Tillajgsh., p. 209; (Selachus) ibid. 1879, No. 1, p. 103; 

 Gerv., P et H. (Sgualus 1. Cetorhinus), Journ. Zool., toin. V 

 (1876), p. 319; Ltkn (Selachus), Vid. Meddel. Naturb. For. 

 Kblivn 1879 — 80, p. 62; MoR. (Selache), Hist. Nat. Poiss. 

 Fr., loiii. I, p. 305; Doderl., Man. Ittiol. Medit., fasc. II, 

 p. 70; D,\Y, Fish. Gt. Brit., Irel., vol. II, p. 303, tab. CLVIII, 

 fig. 1; Lu.L.i., ^.'fi'., Norg. Fna, Fisk., vol. Ill, p. 633. 

 Squahis Gunnerianus, Blnvlle, Journ. Phys., torn. LXXI (1810), 

 p. 256, tab. II (+Squ. pelegrinus + Squ. Homianus, p. 

 257); Id., Squ. Pelerin, Ann. Mus. D'Hist. Nat., torn. XVIII 

 (1811), p. 88, lab. 6; Id., Cetorhinus Ounneri + Cet. Pere- 

 grinus + Cet. Shtivianus + Cet. Homianus (?), Bull. Sc. Soc. 

 Philora. 1816, p. 121. 

 Squalus isodus, Maori, Att. Accad. R. Sc. Borbon., Nap., vol. I 

 (1819), p. 55, lab. I, fig. 1; tab. II, fig. 2 (+ Squ. ro- 

 stratus, p. 76, tab. 1, fig. 2). Squnlu.i (Cetorhinus) rostratus, 

 Cornish, Zoologist, vol. XXVIII (1870), p. 2259. 

 Squalus eUphas, Lesueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Hist. Pliilad., toiii. 

 II (1882), p. 343. 



The Basking Shark attain.s a length of at least about 

 13 or 15 m. Larger specimens are cited; but the ac- 

 counts of these do not adniit of satisfactory verification. 

 GuNNERUS states, for instance, that specimens have been 

 met with measuring 16 fathoms (30 m.) in length 

 and 3 fathoms (5 '/a m-) in breadth. A specimen of 

 this size would j'ield over 28 hectolitres of liver; and 

 according to a statement in Collett a Basking Shark 

 was harpooned in West Fjord about 1868 that con- 

 tained 23 tunnor (27 hectolitres) of liver. Nilsson 

 was informed by the fishermen on the west coast of 

 Norway with wliuui he ctmversed in 1826, that they 

 harpooned Basking Sharks every year considerably more 



tlian 40 ft. (12 m.) long, and that the liver of each 

 fish filled 10 — 12 tunnor. The largest Basking Sharks 

 they had seen, had yielded 14 tunnor of liver. 



Apart from the above-mentioned characters, the 

 Basking Shark in form of body rather closely resembles 

 a Porbeagle, being of a terete, fusiform shape, on the 

 back rather flat, behind with some lateral compression, 

 though broadened by the lateral carinas of the tail, 

 which render the breadth of this part greater than 

 the depth. The greatest depth of the Ijody measures 

 in young specimens, according to Pavesi, about 10 — 12 % 

 of its length, in old, according to Blainville, about 

 18 %, according to Dodeklein as much as 22 %, of 

 the same. 



The different foi'in of the head in the young and 

 old we have remarked abo\'e. The alteration is essen- 

 tially due to the position of the cleft of the mouth, 

 which in the joiuig is transverse, as in the Rays, in 

 the old curved, as in other Sharks. The corners of the 

 mouth, which during youth are directed straight out- 

 wards, form the rounded protuberances on the sides of 

 the head behind the eyes. In the jaws the recurved, 

 conical, but sharp-edged, pointed teeth are set in 4 — 7 

 transverse rows, l)ut are so small that they "are often 

 concealed by the gums and accumulated filth" (GuN- 

 nerus). In a Basking Shark 39 dm. long they are 

 3 mm. high, according to Lilljeborg. Stoker counted 

 1,400 teeth in the lower jaw. The nostrils lie on the 

 under surface of the snout, but close to either side- 

 margin, much nearer to the eyes than to the tip of the 

 snout. The relative length both of the snout and the 

 entire head is considerably greater in the young than 

 ill the old. In the former, according to Pavesi, the 

 length of the snout is about '/jo or V13 of that of the 

 body, in the latter '/g,, of the same or less. The length 

 of the head to the first gill-opening is in the former 

 about ' ., — Vo) i" flif latter at most less than ' ,.,, of 

 the le'ngth of the liody". The eyes, which are round 

 and small, undergo, as usual, the same alteration of 

 growth. According to Pavesi the diameter of the orbit 

 in the young is about '/s of ^be breadth of the head 

 at the base of the snout; according to Storer this dia- 

 meter measures in an older specimen '/j of the inter- 

 orbital width. The gill-openings extend across so con- 

 siderable a portion of the sides (the throat) that the 

 distance between the tops of the first pair is only twice 



According to Stober the length of the head in a specimen 9' 4 m. long was 15'7 % of that of the body. 



