THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 65 



to contain rays or fringes of a substance like whalebone, which 

 act as strainers, and serve to retain the large quantities of minute 

 animals upon which the fish feeds. These fringes were referred 

 to by Bishop Gunnerus as early as 1766. Giinther says : — " The 

 branchial arches of Selache (Cetorhinus) are provided with a very 

 broad fringe of long (5 to 6 inches) and thin gill-rakers, possessing 

 the same microscopical structure as the teeth and dermal produc- 

 tions of sharks. Similar gill-rakers have been found in a fossil 

 state in the Crag of Anvers in Belgium, proving the existence of 

 this Selachian type in the tertiary epoch." I could, however, find 

 no indication of them in the present specimen. 



Regarding the food various suggestions have been made, such 

 as medusae, seaweeds, small fish, &c. Dr. Giinther says : — " Its 

 food consists of small fishes and other small marine animals 

 swimming in shoals." Sir E. Home, referring to a specimen 

 which he examined, states : — " The contents of the stomach 

 consisted of several pails full of pebbles, a quantity of mucous, 

 and a small portion of a substance which proves to be the spawn 

 of a univalve ; " while Sir Frederick M'Coy states that a sample 

 of the contents of the intestines of the Portland specimen was 

 " altogether composed of body and shells of a species of the genus 

 Cuvieria or Triptera (Pteropoda), the mass being tinted of a 

 'boiled-shrimp ' red from the remains of the soft parts." There 

 is no doubt that its food largely consists of similar kinds of minute 

 oceanic animal forms as that of the whale. 



Nothing appears to be known so far of the reproduction of this 

 shark, which has been recorded so long ago as the year 1662 

 from Norfolk, England. Sir E. Home, in his "anatomical 

 account " of this species, states that it " appears in many respects 

 to be similar in its structure to the shark, but it differs essentially 

 from it in the form of the stomach, and in that respect forms an 

 intermediate link between the shark and the whale." Low 

 mentions that the flesh was eaten by the poorer classes in the 

 Orkneys. 



Measurements. — Total length from tip of snout to tip of upper 

 lobe of tail, 12 feet 11 inches; to origin of first dorsal, 4 feet 

 10 inches ; posterior base of first dorsal to anterior base of second 

 dorsal, 2 feet 65^ inches; posterior base of second dorsal to 

 anterior base of caudal, i foot 3 inches ; tip of snout to anterior 

 base of pectoral, 3 feet 4 inches ; posterior base of pectoral to 

 anterior base of ventral, 3 feet 4 inches ; posterior base of 

 ventral to anterior base of anal, i foot 2 inches ; posterior base 

 of anal to base of lower lobe of caudal, i foot i inch. 

 Length of anterior edge of first dorsal, i foot 7 inches ; of outer 

 edge, I foot 154 inches ; of posterior edge, 5}^ inches ; of base, 

 I foot lyi inches. Length of anterior edge of second dorsal, 

 6 inches ; of outer edge, 3}^ inches ; of posterior edge, 4^4^ inches ; 



