THE SQUALUS SPINAX AND THE SEA FOX. 559 



in Iceland. But its range to the south is much more 

 limited ; for even in the more southern parts of the 

 Cattegat * it is a rare visitor, and as yet has not been 

 met with in the Sound, much less in the Baltic. This 

 fish is generally understood to be identical with the 

 S. niger, Bonap., a Mediterranean fish ; but if so, why 

 should it not visit the British seas, where it would appear 

 not to have been liitherto recognized ? It is the smallest 

 of the Scandinavian sharks. Its usual length with us 

 is from twelve to fourteen inches, and it. seldom attains 

 to more than eighteen. As Avith the Picked Dog-Fish, it 

 keeps in shoals, and for the most part to the deeps 

 where the bottom is muddy. Little seems known to 

 Northern naturalists as to w^hat constitutes its food 

 and its habits, beyond the fact that it brings forth its 

 young alive, and, as it is supposed, at various seasons. 

 It is said to be very hard-lived. Bishop Gunnerus 

 relates that, even when its liver and entrails have been 

 taken out, it has been known to " spille paa bordef," that 

 is, to dance on the table. Its flesh is not eaten : we 

 are, indeed, told by Ascanius that on the Norwegian 

 coast it is looked on as j^oisonous. But the oil extracted 

 from its liver is not only valuable in itself, but is sup- 

 posed to possess medicinal virtues. 



The Sea Pox, or Thresher (*S'. Vitlpes, Gmel.), has not 

 found a place in either the Swedish or Danish faunas ; 

 but Kroyer says he has been credibly informed that some 



* " Though the width of the Cattegat between the Scaw and the Swedish 

 coast is but small, say between forty and fifty (English) miles," Kroyer 

 remarks, " yet this inconsiderable distance shows not unimportant modifi- 

 cations in zoological geography, in consequence of the Cattegat sinking or 

 falling considerably towards the East. This is exemplified as regards the 

 S. Spinax and the »S'. Galeus. The former, a Northern fish, is frequent, 

 as just shown, on the Norwegian side of the Cattegat, but scarce on the 

 Danish ; whereas the latter, a Southern fish, is, a.s mentioned, pretty common 

 on the Daiiisli, Init rare on the Swedish side." 



