Ad. S. Jensen : The Selachians of Greenland. 11 



or take the chain \\dth it; but in this case the shark may be attacked and devoured by 

 other sharks, which ends in only the head remaining on the hook or another shark coming 

 and attaching itself to the whole. The hook must also be so fixed, that it can turn round 

 like a pivot on the end of the chain, otherwise the shark can bend and break it. A third 

 method (cf. fig. 2) consists in the use of long lines of common thin string and ordinary 

 large fish-hooks, which go right down to the bottom. The dullness or stupidity of the 

 shark, namely, is such that this huge animal allows itself to be hauled up on a line no 

 thicker than stout twine, so that is it not rarely taken by chance on the same lines that 

 are used to catch the Greenland halibut. This method requires a constant watching 

 of the lines, which is made easier, however, by their being fastened round upright, flex- 

 ible sticks, from which it can he seen when a fish bites, and in this way it is possible for 

 one man to look after several lines at one time. 



In South Greenland, where the fast ice only lies at a few places and for a short time, 

 as also in North Greenland in the summer the sharks are fished from small wooden boats 

 and kayaks. As bait on a fishing-line for catching shark from a kayak 1 have noted, at 

 Narssak, the following: pieces of blubber, pieces of blood-red gills of sharks and pieces 

 of Greenland halibut with attached fins. It is almost incredible, that such a large 

 rapacious fish can be hauled up from the great depths (ca. 125 — 200 fm.) with the 

 thin fishing lines and killed from the kayak simply with a thrust of a knife. The 

 Greenlanders only fear the very large, says Rink, as their movements and rough skin 

 can make holes in the kayak skin. When the shark is hauled up to the kayak 

 and its spine cut across, its movements become feeble; the belly is then cut open 

 and the liver removed, after which the rest of the body is allowed to sink to the 

 bottom. If the shark is not specially large, one man can do the killing, but when 

 very large two or three kayaks take part. 



The shark fishing in South Greenland has gradually and greatly increased in recent 

 years; in the finance year 1907/08 it amounted to l/8th of the whole Greenland shark 

 fishery, in the year 1911/12 it had increased to almost l/3rd. 



In Greenland I have not seen any Greenland sharks smaller in length than about 

 6 feet, and Rink is probably right in stating that the usual size of the sharks caught 

 is 6 to 14 feet. 



In the stomachs of captured sharks I always found the remains of fish (Greenland 

 lialibut, fjord cod or "Uvak", cod, cat-fish, Sebastes, rays and its own species), 

 but it also takes lower animals (Crustacea etc.) and the carcases of seals, whales 

 and birds. 



Sometimes a peculiar variety, chalk-white, occurs. A skin of such an albino, caught 

 1 l-S-1898 at Jakobshavn was forwarded by then-assistant A. P. Olsen and is preserved 

 in the Copenhagen Zoological Museum; and when I was staying at Ikerasak in 



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