96 NEW SOUTH WALES 



mouth, which is situated directly under the eye, is of a crescent shape, 

 and the jaws are armed with four or five rows of teeth, formidable and 

 sharp. 



" These sharks are caught in October, November, and part of December, 

 for their oil alone. After the latter month the liver yields little or none. 

 During these months they yield a considerable quantity, the quality of 

 which is good, and excellent for burning in lamps. 



"These sharks used to be caught in Botany Bay, at regular 'nurse' 

 grounds, near to the Seven-mile Beach, and wdiat is known as ' Doll's 

 Point,' where they could be seen of a calm day during the months of 

 October and November, lying on the bottom in regular rows like logs of 

 timber, and each row apparently as if they had been selected of one 

 length. During these months, and on these grounds, they were caught 

 Avith line and hook. (Singular to remark that this operation was at one 

 time systematically carried out, and the oil obtained from the liver of 

 these sharks was used at the Tower (a Government station situated on 

 the inner head of the north side of Botany Bay) for years, as well as by 

 the fishermen of the village of that bay. The fact is also very curious 

 that when fishing for these sharks you will, with a rai'e exception, 

 catch them all of one length — no variation which can be detected by the 

 eye ; and out of twenty-eight caught in 1857, at one fishing, there was 

 not the slightest perceptible difference. Occasionally a very large one 

 was caught, and which forms the exception. 



" In fishing for the gi'ey-nurse, and when one of them takes the bait, 

 the others rush towards it with a view either to participate in the food 

 or to protect the one which has taken the hook, for they then overlie 

 each other to that extent that it is like being fast to a rock ; a constant 

 and heavy strain alone will move the one you are fast to. When the 

 battle commences, it gives some sport and plenty of work before you can 

 get it alongside to enable you to give it a blow on the head with a club, 

 which is part of the equipment for that purpose. After the oil season 

 these sharks are very vicious, and move about freely ; and when one is 

 fishing for other fishes and happens to hook a 'nui'se' on a good line, it 

 will, with its great strength, drag the boat about, kellick and all, 

 apparently without much exertion. 



*' The ' nurse' has been known to seize hold of the steer oar of a 

 whaleboat when the boat has been moving rapidly through the water, 

 and shake it with its teeth two or three times, let go its hold, and pursue 

 and seize it again as if it was a living object, or, as it were, in derision 

 or spox't. At other times it has been known to attack the boat as if it 

 smelled the bait within, or hover about, putting in an appearance every 

 now and then. It was supposed that sharks could smell the living 

 freight on boai*d the ships connected with the negro slave ships in days 

 of old ; so with these, they have been known to seize hold of the stern- 

 post and shake the boat till it quivered again." 



Heterodontits or Cestracion has a peculiar interest attached to it, on 

 account of its being of a form which prevailed in past geological times, 

 or at least fishes very like it. The fossil forms exceed in size the species 

 of our coast. They make their appearance in the Devonian period, 

 increasing in the Carboniferous, and surviving up to the Chalk. The 

 majority of the species however lived in the earlier secondary period. 



