418 FISHES OF THE FIRTH OF FORTH. 



adapted ; it also takes a bait, but is less rapacious than 

 most of the tribe. The young ai-e produced alive in No- 

 vember, the whole coming to perfection at once ; but they 

 are few in number, not perhaps exceeding a dozen, and 

 soon after birth they all go into deep water, from which 

 they do not emerge until the following May." Mr Yarrell 

 says it has been taken on the coasts of the counties of An- 

 trim and Londonderry, and he has seen it at various places 

 on the coasts of Kent and Sussex. Dr Fleming records it 

 as being used in the Hebrides as food, and the flesh is 

 esteemed a delicate dish. 



The principal character which distinguishes this fish 

 from the rest of the Sharks is in the form of the teeth, 

 which are, as before observed, arranged in a compacted 

 pavement, with their summits perfectly smooth, the teeth 

 of Sharks generally being very sharp pointed, more or less 

 of a triangular form. 



Genus SELACHUS. — First dorsal fin in advance of 

 the ventrals ; anal fin and temporal orifices both present ; 

 teeth not denticulated at the sides ; branchial openings all 

 before the pectorals, nearly surrounding the neck. 



Selachus maximus.* — The Basking Shark. 



Description. — " The body is the thickest about the middle^ and 

 diminishes towards both extremities ; when afloat the form is nearly 

 cylindrical ; the skin thick and rough, of a brownish black colour, 

 with tints of blue. The head conical, the muzzle short, rather blunt, 

 smooth, and pierced with numerous circular pores ; eyes near the snout, 

 small, oval, the elongation horizontal, the irides brown ; half-way be- 

 tween the eye and the first branchial opening is the temporal ori- 

 fice, oblique and small ; branchial openings five on each side, of great 

 vertical length, each set including the whole side of the neck, and 

 leaving only a small space above and below ; nostrils oval, small, 

 placed rather laterally, and opening on the edge of the upper lip ; 



* Selachus maximus, Yarr. Sguahis maximus, .Fen., Penn., Flem. 



