346 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURXAL 



Photos by J. T. Nichols 

 Huiiliiif? lirowii sharks ((Uirchiirhinits niillivrli) in Great South Bay, 

 LoiiK IsLind. The shark is harpooned from the bowsprit of a sloop, a 

 bucket l>elng alta<;hed to the harpoon hue. A tender is lowered wliicli 

 picks up the bucket and hauls up to the sliark (upper picture). The 

 shark is then Ian(;eil (middle picture) and haul(;d on board. This spe- 

 cies is not daiit,'erous and is common in this vicinity in summer. In a 

 recently published paper Mr. Kdwin Thoriie, from whose sloop the 

 above pliotoKrai)hs were taken, mentions taking fourteen brown sharks 

 in one day, and of the hundreds he has caught at various limes all but 

 two have been females. These enter the Great South Bay in midsum- 

 mer to give birth to their young and may be found there until Septem- 

 ber. The brown shark feeds on crabs, lobsters, and various fishes. 

 Its fin and tail are seldom seen above the surface, as are those of 

 pelagic sharks 



quiet at the surface for a long 

 time and that the gill arches 

 are provided with strainers 

 which resemble whalebone. 

 This fish was described l^y 

 the Norwegian bishop Gun- 

 ner in 1765 in a learned paper 

 in which he sought to prove 

 that this must have been the 

 "great fish" that swallowed 

 Jonah. From the standpoint 

 of mere size, the basking 

 shark fulfills all the require- 

 ments, for it is one of the 

 largest of sharks and the in- 

 gestion of a prophet would 

 have entailed no difficulty or 

 inconvenience. A length of 

 fifty feet has been claimed for 

 it, but the available authentic 

 records give a maximum of 

 under forty feet. It is at 

 home in the Arctic seas, but 

 sometimes has strayed as far 

 southward as Virginia and 

 California. In former years 

 it was not uncommon on the 

 New England coast and also 

 on the shores of western 

 P^urope ; and it was regularly 

 hunted for its oil in Ireland 

 and Norway. In the early 

 eighteenth century, and in the 

 early part of the last century, 

 it was not infrequently har- 

 pooned by the IVIaine and 

 Massachusetts fishermen, 

 and the liver of a large speci- 

 men has been known to yield 

 twelve barrels of oil. From 

 Eastport, Maine, and Prov- 

 incetown, Massachusetts, 

 and even from the lower 

 harbor of New York, quite a 

 number of individuals rang- 

 ing from twenty-eight to 

 thirty-five feet in length have 



