Ad. S. Jensen : The Selachians of Greenland. 5 



The specimens from the Davis Strait were measured in tlie fresh condition and 

 showed tlie following total length: 

 St. 429. 800 mm ?; 750 mm ?; 470 mm <S. 

 St. 431. 660 mm <?. 



Of the specimens taken in Brede Fjord and Kangerdluarsuk 6 were preserved; in 



the preserved condition (thus considerably contracted) they show the following total 



lengths : 



??:705, 675, 650, 625, 610, 565 mm. 



According to these data the males reach a length of 660 mm, the females 800 mm. 



The liver which is extremely rich in oil is unusually large comparatively speaking; 

 in one specimen with a total weight of I'/s kg the liver weighed '/n; kg, thus about a fourth 

 of the whole fish. In the stomach of specimens from the Davis Strait I have found the 

 lenses of cuttle-fishes, also a large deep-sea jelly-fish (Atolla Bairdi Fewkes) and remains 

 of Crustacea (Rhoda inermis Kr. and Boreomysis tridens G. 0. Sars(?)). 



CentrosqjUium Fabricii is viviparous; it has been taken gravid in February, with 

 embryos of 124 mm in length (cf. p. 6). 



This shark must be considered luminous like other species of Spinacidae; under 

 a lens the skin between the spines shows minute, dark points, which according to the 

 investigations of Johann and BurckhardtM are luminous organs. 



Remarks. 



In 1825 J. Reinhardt^j set up a new species of shark, which had been sent Lo him 

 from Julianehaab, referring it to the genus Spinax Cuv. and giving it the specific name 

 of Fabricii "in memory of our Otto Fabricius so highly esteemed for his services to 

 the Greenland fauna". Spinax Fabricii is characterized briefly in the following manner: 

 "Dentibus similibus utriusque maxillae tri-quinque cuspidatis" (cf. fig. 1) and it is added, 

 that the skin "is provided with a great number of small stellate tubercles". 



In his "Nye systematisk Fortegnelse over de gronlandske Fiskearter" J. Rein- 

 HARDT^) puts forward the suggestion, that it was this, his new species, which Fabricius 

 had recorded in Fauna Groenlandica as Squalus acanthias Linne; for though Fabricius 

 speaks of "Squalus acanthias'' in terms which lead one to suppose, that it should not 

 be rare in southern Greenland, Reinhardt had not been able to obtain this species from 

 Greenland, whereas he had several times had Spinax Fabricii sent to him. 



In a letter to J. Reinhardt in the Zoological Museum, dated 6th July 1840 and writ- 

 ten by the Missionary J. F. Jgrgensen in Julianehaab, the latter states that he is sending 



') R. BuRCKHARDT : On the Luminous Organs of Selachian Fishes. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 7 Ser., 

 Vol. VI, lyuO, p. 558. 



■-) Overs. K. D. Vidensk. Selsk. Forhandl. 1824—25, p. 3. (1825). 



") K. D. Vidensk. Selsk. naturvidensk. og mathem. Afhandl., VII, 1838, pp. 116 & 132. 



