548 THE DOG-FISHES. 



western coast of Norway, where it ranges at least as liigli 

 up as the Lofoden Islands. But it is only occasion- 

 ally met with as far south as the Sound, and, by all 

 accounts, is altogether unknown in the Baltic. Its usual 

 length with us was about two feet and a half, and its 

 weight five to six pounds ; but it attains a somewhat greater 

 size. Nilsson mentions that in 1822 a sort of pestilence 

 raged amongst these fishes in the Bohus Skiirgiird, which 

 carried otf great numbers, and since that time the fisher- 

 men report they have become much scarcer. Northern 

 naturalists seem but little acquainted with its breeding or 

 other habit?. It is frequently taken by people when fishing 

 for haddock, the hook baited with the common salt-water 

 mussel (Jli/tiliis ednlis), and generally at a depth of from 

 forty to sixty fathoms, where the bottom is stony ; as also 

 on the "long-line" set for cod and ling, in from eighty 

 to one hundred fathoms, with mackerel or haddock for 

 bait. The Sea Monster is not eaten, but great store is set 

 on its liver from the quantity of oil it contains, more, 

 Kroyer says, than that of any other fish with which he is 

 acquainted. The oil is not only useful for many household 

 purposes, but is held in high estimation for the extraor- 

 dinary medicinal properties it is believed to possess. 



We now come to the Sharks, of which nine species 

 are included in the Scandinavian fauna, viz. : — 



The Small-spotted Dog-Fish {Stmi-jldckig Do(j<j-Fisk, 

 literal translation of tiie English, Sw. ; Smaa-plcetted Rud- 

 Haj,i.e. small-spotted red-shark, Dan.; Squalus Canicula, 

 Linn.) was scarce with us and elsewhere on the western 

 coasts of Sweden and Norway, where its limits to the 

 northward seem but imperfectly known. It is not an 

 inhabitant of the Baltic ; but few, indeed, find their 

 way so far south as the Sound, and on the western coast 

 of Denmark, according to Kroyer, it has not yet been 

 identified. It is about the smallest of the sharks, its 



