216 STRUCTURE OF BASKING SHARK. 



before it was skinned, weighed about 8 tons. I regret that 

 no record was taken of the size of the stomach, state of 

 the viscera, &c. The eye, when taken out of the orbit, 

 was as large as the two fists put together ; the nose was 

 composed of a gelatinous substance, as may be seen in 

 common sharks and ordinary dog-fish. The sclerotic 

 coat was as hard as though it was made of iron ; the 

 use of this is to prevent the soft structures of the eye 

 being crushed by a superincumbent weight of water 

 pressure, which at great de^oths in the ocean must be 

 very great. Lying about among the cut off flesh of 

 the shark I discovered two gills, which present a 

 structure entirely new to me ; instead of presenting the 

 ordinary appearance of fishes' gills, they are exactly 

 like fine fibres of split whalebone, only very brittle. 

 These fibres also very much resemble bass, of which 

 brooms are made. The length of these is 5in. to 6in., 

 and have a very pretty comb-like appearance. I can- 

 not conceive how this structure can be adopted for 

 oxygenating the blood. The teeth are remarkably 

 small ; they do not in the least resemble the sharp- 

 cutting, triangular- shaped teeth of ordinary sharks, but 

 consist, on the contrary, of six rows of little spikes. 

 Mr. Searle and myself cut out the dimensions of this 

 monster shark in board, and the same can be seen at 

 my museum at South Kensington. 



Mr. Brabazon states : ** If the sun of April is hot, the 

 Sun-Fish (locally so called) are certain to show above 

 the water, and they remain on the Clew bank until 

 the middle of May. A large shoal of sharks pass 

 annually at this season along the west coast on their 

 way from the southern to the northern seas. They are 

 taken on the sun-fish bank, situated about a hundred 

 miles west of Clew Bay, and extending many miles 



