BASKING SHARK. 65 



great difficulty in getting it on shore. Instead of landing at 

 six o'clock in the morning, it was seven at night before they 

 got to the shore ; and had they not been assisted by other boats' 

 crews, they would not have managed it in two days. When 

 caught it seemed to have taken a mouthful of herrings, and 

 then rolled itself in the net. When the men began to haul in 

 the nets, which were new, they found them twisted with the 

 ropes five times round it. It died in a very short time, or 

 the men would have run a very hard chance for their lives." 



This is the largest of the Sharks, and of all true fishes; so 

 that from its size, and partly from its habits, it was, as we 

 have seen, formerly regarded as belonging to the class of Whales ; 

 and it was only so lately as the time of the British naturalist 

 Pennant, that it was discovered, not indeed to be a Whale, 

 but in all its characters to belong to the family of Sharks. If, 

 however, we may take ^Elian as our authority, its true position 

 among the Sharks must have been understood in ancient times; 

 for it is not- easy to refer an observation of his, in his work 

 on the particular nature of animals, (B. i, c. 55,) to any other 

 than the Basking Shark; the occurrence of which in the 

 Mediterranean Sea appears to be intimated by the French writer 

 Pomet, to whom we shall have occasion to refer aa:ain. ^Elian 

 says that there are three sorts of sea-dogs, the largest of which 

 might be reckoned a Whale of the largest size. The other 

 two are very much smaller, and are the Centrine and Galeus. 

 Lacepede doubted whether the AVliite Shark does not reach 

 an equal size; but there is no account of the latter fish as 

 attaining anything like the length of thirty-six feet, which was the 

 case with the example of Basking Shark seen at Brighton by 

 Mr. Yarrell. One was taken in Cornwall that measured thirty- 

 one feet eight inches, from which our figure was taken; and 

 the circumference of body great even in proportion to such 

 enormous length. Lacepede speaks of one that measured 

 thirty-three feet in length, and twenty-four feet in circumference. 



We are not to place credit, however, in Baron Haller's 

 assertion, that cartilaginous fishes are ever growing, and find no 

 limit to their size, ("First Lines of Physiology," 8vo, Edin., 

 p. 463;) for some species are never other than small, and others 

 at first starting into existence are of considerable size, and yet 

 are never met with above a certain bulk. The example par- 

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