GKEENLAXI) SllAlJK. 



1171 



The fishery for the Greenland Shark is fairly lu- 

 crative ill many localities. On th(! coast of Norway, 

 and (iccasionally on tiiat of Holiiislrni, the (ireenhind 

 Sliark is soufijlit after princijially for tlie sake of its 

 liver, from wliich oil is extracted; but in Iceland and 

 (Greenland the flesh is eaten both by man and dogs. 

 A large tisli contains, according to Rink, two barrels 

 i)f liver, which, when melted down, yields oil to the 

 amount of about 53 %. The flesh is also oily, but the oil 

 I'xudes in process of drying, or may be removed by press- 

 ing while the fish is fresh. The Icelanders, like the Nor- 

 wegians in GuNNERUs's time, cut the flesh up into rav 

 and rdkling". The Greenlanders prefer to eat it rotten. 

 When fresh, it tastes like Halibut, according to Kink, 

 and has an agreeable, white appearance, but is some- 

 what coarse and tough. 



In Norway the Greenland Shark is caught on large 

 hooks, turning freely on a swivel, and with a snood 

 of slender iron-chain, which the lish cannot bite asun- 

 der. The line is a centimetre thick or a little thinner, 



and is wound up nn a small windlass, made fast to the 

 bulwark of tiie \cssel. With this tackle the bankers 

 lie at anchor in the npcii sea lictwcen Norway and 

 Bear Island or Spitzbergen, in 100 — 200 fathoms of 

 water. The method practised is the same on the co;ists 

 of Iceland and Sduth (iivcnland; but in North Green- 

 land, according tn Kink, tlie (ireenland Shark is taken 

 witli far less trouble and nuich greater succ(!ss through 

 holes in the fast ice. The strong-smelling bait is dang- 

 led (jiily a few metres below the surface, or it even 

 happens that the Shark may be; enticed right up to the 

 hole, where it is captured with a gaff. The sluggish- 

 ness of the Greenland Shark is such that it sometimes 

 allows itself to be taken on an ordinary Cod-line. 



Among the parasites of the Greenland Shark is 

 often observed a crustacean, Lcnueopoda eloiif/afa, 

 which attaches itself to the cornea of the eye, and 

 which was first tigured by Scokesby and, after him, 

 by Couch in his figure of the Greenland Shark. 



their length, ami wliieh rrooked backwards along the posterior surface of tlie diaiihragni, each to its resijuclive side, below and along the 

 spinal column. The two ribbon-shaped ovaries were symmetrically suspended on each side in the anterior part of the abiloniinal cavity and 

 were of about the same size, 30 em. (-5 of the length of the said cavity) long and 2'', cm. broad. The eggs were innumerable, and hardly 

 distinguishable to the naked eye. At uo point was there any indication of an earlier development in one part of tlie egg-mass than in an- 

 other. This specimen too seemed accordingly to bear out LOtken's opinion as to the reproductive operations of the Greenland Sliark; but 

 the question cannot be fully solved until older and ripe females have been examined. 

 " See above, p. 415. 



