1170 



SCANDIXAVIAX FISHES. 



Sea and the Channel (off the mouth of the Seine), as 

 well as in the Cattegat, even off Mount Kullen, where 

 Baron Gyllexstjekxa secured a speciuien during the 

 spring of 1831, and on the north eoast of Zealand, 

 whence Khdveh and Peteuses each adduce a specimen. 

 On the coast of BohuslUn the Greenland Shark is not 

 too scarce to have received a special name among the 

 tishei-men, being called Hdmdr (as in Xorwa)) and, on 

 Koster, Bldmauer or Bhimaq-mur. Strictly, however, 

 it is a deep-sea lish, with its true linlutat at a depth 

 of some hundreds of fathoms, so that its appearance in 

 tiie upper strata and in sliallow water must be regarded 

 as more or less fortuitous. 



The Greenland Shark is sluggish and insensitive, 

 but rapacious. Its acute hearing and keen smell have 

 always been remarked by the iisherman. From the 

 dejjths and from afar it is attracted hj the odour of 

 dead flesh, whether a whale is being cut up, a seal- 

 hunt in progress, or a piece of carrion be cast out as 

 a Ijait. From the carcase of the whale it tears pieces 

 as big as a man's head, and cares little if the exaspe- 

 rated whaler stabs it witli his long knife or pierces it 

 with a, lance. It is soon ready again to renew its vo- 

 racious repast. To a moderate-sized Greenland Shark 

 a seal is a comfortable mouthful. In the stomach of a 

 Greenland Shark, according to Guxnerus, the carcase 

 of a reindeer has been found; and Fabek relates that, 

 when horses belonging to the Icelanders venture on too 

 tliin ice and are drowned, the Greenland Shark makes 

 its way up the narrowest fjords — where it never puts 

 in an appearance at other times — to feed on horse- 

 flesh. But as a rule, no doubt, its prey consists of live 

 animals; and in the stomach of a specimen 44 dm. 

 long Fabek found a wIkjIc seal {Plioca vifiiUiia), 8 large 

 Cod, a Ling I'i'/, dm. long, the head of a large Hali- 

 but, and several pieces of whale-blubber. It lias even 

 been considered dangerous to man. Fabricius relates 

 that it attacks the Greenlanders in their kayaks and 



bites both boat and kayaker in two. The Greenlanders, 

 he states, therefore took care never to make a noise or 

 talk aloud \vhen passing over deep spots, for fear tlie 

 Greenland Shark should hear them and come up. Rixk, 

 however, seems to give no credence to these accounts, 

 and even says that the Greenlanders are only afraid of 

 the very large Greenland Sharks, which by their move- 

 ments and with their sharp skin might tear holes in 

 the kayaks. Faber states that in Iceland no instance 

 had been recorded of a Greenland Shark attacking 

 human beings. 



As has been indicated above, ichthyologists are 

 still doubtful whether the Greenland Shark gives birth 

 to living young or lays eggs. Fabiucius states posi- 

 tively that it is viviparous, and Faber adds that the 

 young are born in July and August. A female of 

 Acanthorhinus rostrutus dissected by Corxalia" had 6 

 foetuses in the oviducts, and another prepared by MM. 

 Gal at Nice' contained 12 fcetuses. Lutkex, however, 

 pointed out the singularity of the fact that in recent 

 times, so far as he could ascertain, no fa-tus had been 

 found in any Greenland Shark, and also cited express 

 statements from Iceland, where a general conviction 

 obtains that the Greenland Shark is oviparous. In sup- 

 port of this opinion he adduces the circumstance that 

 the eggs of the Greenland Shark, which have been 

 found, inside the fish, of the size of goose-eggs, are so 

 numerous that an adult female sometimes contains a 

 barrel and a half or t\vo barrels thereof; and such 

 numerousness, he says, is surely not compatible with 

 the development of the fa?tuses within the oviducts, 

 provided the development be simultaneous or nearly so. 

 The last-mentioned assumption, however, has not been 

 demonstrated: and so long as this is the case, we have 

 good reason to follow Lilljebokg and give the prefe- 

 rence to the earlier belief that in this respect the 

 Greenland Shark resembles its nearest relatives, and 

 gives birth to living young'. 



" See LOtken, 1. c. 



' See MoREAii, 1. c. 



■" Long after the printing of the above in the Swedish edition of the present worlc, on Christmas Eve, 1894, the Royal Museum re- 

 ceived a female Greenland Shark that had been tal^cn some days before on the coast of Bolnislan. The length of the body to the tip of 

 the upper caudal lobe was 172 cm., to that of the lower caudal lobe 158 cm. Tlie length of the abdominal cavity was about 44 % of the 

 former measurement. The two pointed lobes of the liver, which gradually narrowed behind, were longer than the said cavity, the length of 

 the left lobe being about 1'., times (136 % of) that of the right lobe l' , times (126 'i of) the length of the abdominal cavity; and they 

 were therefore bent behind, their posterior extremities being directed forwards. Both were of about the same breadth, which measured, where 

 greatest (in front), about '/,„ of the length of the abdominal cavity. The gall-bladder was rather large, twice as long as broad, and about 

 equal in length to the base of the ventral fins or about '/g as long as the abdominal cavity. On each side of the ventrally median peritoneal 

 fold joining the gall-bladder to the diaphragm, opened the anterior end of the oviducts, which were of almost uniform thickness throughout 



