1146 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 



but large enough to draw Ijlood from the finger, if 

 incautiously handled — gathered in patches or series, 

 with interstices between, tliat give the body an ap- 

 pearance like that of elej)hant-hide. Hence the name 

 conferred ujion tiie species by Lesueur. 



The Basking Shark is a pelagic fish of the Nortli 

 Atlantic", whose manner of life calls to mind in many 

 ways that of the whales, which it also rivals in size. 

 A line between North Africa and Virginia forms the 

 soutliern limit of its geographical range, so far as this 

 has been investigated up to the present time; and the 

 species roves northwards to Iceland and the extreme 

 north of Norway, even to Varanger Fjord, principally, 

 no doubt, witliin the area of the Gulf Stream. At all 

 events it does not a])pear to be, strictly s])eaking, an 

 arctic fish; and the old accounts from Greenland of 

 an immensely large Shark, whicli was said to devour 

 dolphins (especially whitefish), rorquals, and humpbacks, 

 whereon Fauricius based his statement'' that the Bask- 

 ing Siiark occurred on the coast of Greenland, have 

 been assigned by Lutken (1. c.) to the category of 

 fables. The comparatively small e}'es and the firm, 

 thick skin are in themselves sufficient to suggest that 

 the Basking Shark is no deep-sea fish, properly so call- 

 ed; and the probability that its life is passed in the 

 upper levels of the ocean is further increased by the 

 nature of the food to wiiich it is evidently referi'ed. 

 As yet, it is true, we know but little of the bathy- 

 metric distribution in the oj)en sea of those minute 

 creatures — chiefly lower crustaceans, in general so- 

 called Entomostraca, and the larvie or even the eggs of 

 fishes and invertebrates — which compose the diet both 

 of the lai'ge whales and the Basking Shark. Investiga- 

 tions into the biological conditions at various depths in,> 

 the high seas, vigorously pursued as they have been 

 since first instituted by the Swedish expedition in 1869 

 on board the corvette Joseph hie'', have still much left 

 to teach us. But we already know that the supplv of 

 animal food of this kind in the upper strata of the open 

 sea is plentiful at depths varying with the changes of 

 the weather or the set of the currents, and that it 

 fluctuates at different seasons of the j'eai-. Guided 

 hereby, the Basking Shai'k too probably shifts its quar- 



ters. The course taken by the Gulf Stream affords an 

 explanation why the Basking Shark is found more fre- 

 quently off the north of Norway than on the south 

 coast and has never been met with in the Skager Rack 

 or Cattegat. In the North Sea it is rarer than on the 

 west and south coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. 

 On the west coast of France and in Portuguese waters 

 it has been taken once or twice. It penetrates into the 

 Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar (Doder- 

 lein). On the east coast of North America it occurs 

 in the same manner as on this side of the Atlantic. 



The Basking Shark is a peaceable and sluggish 

 creature, harmless to man or other animals of any magni- 

 tude, and asserting its presence only by roving in quest 

 of food at the surface, sometimes with snout above the 

 water. When it accelerates its pace, cleaving the waves 

 with the projecting dorsal and caudal fins, and when 

 it swims in a company of several, one behind another, 

 it presents an appearance that may well have dictated 

 an occasional contribution to the history of the great 

 sea-serpent. Or the same phenomenon may be suggested 

 to the imagination by a sight of this fish as it lies 

 during calm weather in repose at the surface, often 

 with the bellj' upwards, and as the waves lap its rotund 

 l)ody. The name of Basking Shark was conferred upon 

 it by Pennant in exchange for the older name of Sun- 

 fish employed on the Irish and Welsh coasts, an allusion 

 to its habit of lying motionless at the surface, as if 

 basking in the sun. Yet extremes meet, even in the 

 temperament of the Basking Shark; and it has some- 

 times been seen to leap several feet out of the water. 



In spring the Basking Shark approaches the Irish 

 coast. Whether this is done for purposes of propaga- 

 tion, is unknown. Pennant found in a female a foetus 

 about 3 dm. long; but he does not state the time of 

 year. On the west coast of Ireland, about 100 miles 

 west of Clew Bay, is a bank long celebrated for its 

 Basking Shark fishery. Off Tory Island too (N. W. 

 coast of Ireland) companies of 60 to 100 Basking Sharks 

 have been seen. In certain years they are commoner; 

 during others they perhaps do not put in an iippearance. 

 From this locality they seem to migrate northwards 

 along the west coast of Scotland. 



" BROWN-GoonE indeed states (Fisher., Fisher, hulustr. U. i>., sect. I, p. 669) that tlie Basking Shnrli is nut unfrequently harpooned 

 by whalers on the Pacific coast, where a specimen of this species was examined at Monterey (California) hy JoiiDAN and Gilbekt; but in tln'ir 

 Synopsis of the Fishes of North America the latter writers do not mention a word about this. 



' Fna Oroenl., p. 130. 



"■ See Smitt: De senaste dreiis undersokniiigar om hafsfaunans gratis mot djupet, in the periodical Fraintiden for 1870, p. 345. 



