100 



oT)tained the first authentic information about it. It does not 

 sesiu to be rare in this Archipelago, but is ver}'^ sehlom obtained 

 on ac( ount of its large size and the difficulties attending its 

 capture. Dr. Wright saw specimens which exceeded 60 feet 

 in length, and one that was actually measured by Mr. Ward 

 proved to be more than 45 feet long. Nothing more was heard 

 of the creature until January 1878, in which year the capture 

 of another specimen was rej orted from the Peruvian coast 

 ne.ir Callao ; finally, in the present century, Mr. Haly, the 

 a '.com [dished Director of the Colombo Museum, discovered it on 

 the West Coast of Ceylon, and succeeded in obtaining two or 

 three specimen?. One of these was presented by that institu- 

 tion to the Trustees of the British Museum, and, having been 

 mounted by Mr. Grerrard, it is now exhibited in the Fish Gallery, 

 wh'-re it forms one of the most striking objects, although it 

 must be considered a young example, measuring only 17 feet 

 from the end of the snout to the extremity of the tail. 



" A true shark in every respect, Rhinodon is distinguished 

 from the other members of the tribe by the peculiar shape of 

 the head, which is of large size and great breadth, the mouth 

 being quite in front of the snout, and not at the lower side, 

 as in other sharks. Each jaw is armed with a band of teeth 

 arranged in regular transverse rows, and so minute that, in the 

 present specimen, their number has been calculated to be about 

 6.000. The gill openings are very wide ; and three raised folds 

 of the skin run along each side of the body. Also in its varie- 

 gated coloration this fish differs from tlie majority of sharks, 

 bei'ig prettily ornamented all over with spots and stripes of a 

 buff tint." 



After waiting for several days on the chance of a moder- 

 ation of the prevailing south-west wind, I left Colombo with 

 Captain Donnan on the barque Snltdn Isl-andery which towed 

 after her the diving boats, each with its crew composed of 

 coxswain, rowers, divers, and munducks who attend to the 

 divers, letting them down by ropes, pulling them up, &.Q. 

 The steam-tug Active followed us on the following day. As 

 an inspection of the reported pearl bank off Negombo was 

 out of the question owing to the heavy swell, we sailed 

 straight on to Dutch Bay, where we anchored, after a some- 

 what boisterous journey, on the following morning, insida 

 the long and rapidly extending spit of sand, which forms the 

 western boundary of the bay, on which the sale bungalow, 

 kottus, &c., were standing during my last visit in March at 

 the time of the collapse of the pearl fishery. The Bay now 

 presented a very deserted appearance, a few fishermen, living 

 in huts and earning a modest living by curing sharks and 

 bony fishes, and a number of natives, from near and dia- 



