HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 255 



have here transcribed, not having been able to see a second specimen. When I saw the 

 fish, it was lying upon the beach, where it was entirely exposed at low tide, and nearly, 

 if not altogether, covered by water when the tide was high. The tide was flowing in 

 when I examined it, which compelled me to make a more rapid survey than could 

 have been wished. It had been opened, and its viscera were removed. The liver 

 filled eight barrels, and furnished six barrels of oil. 



Among our fishermen this species is known as the Bone Shark. It is rarely observed 

 on our coast, and when taken is generally harpooned. For my knowledge of it in our 

 waters, I am almost entirely indebted to my old and tried friend, Capt. Atwood. Within 

 his remembrance he has known but three to be captured in nets. In 1835, an individual 

 became entangled in a mackerel-net, and was then harpooned. In 1836 or 1837, a second 

 was caught in a net ; and after being drowned, its carcase was freed by the fishermen 

 from the net, and it afterward drifted ashore in a state of decomposition. After lying 

 upon the beach several days, a fisherman visited it for the purpose of procuring a slice 

 for his hens, as is the custom at Provincetown, he supposing it to be a dead whale. As- 

 certaining what the animal was, he removed the liver and sold the oil in Boston for one 

 hundred and three dollars, it having produced five or six barrels of oil. In 1847, a third 

 Avas captured, then harpooned and drawn ashore. 



In 1848, a vessel going to the coast of Maine for humpback whales, fell in with many 

 of this species off Cape Elizabeth, and secured several of them. A tradition exists among 

 the fishermen, that this species was taken in quite large numbers one hundred years 

 ago, in the spring, for their oil. 



This species was described and figured by Lesueur, from a specimen taken near New 

 York, in 1822, as being previously unknown to naturalists, under the name of Squalus ele- 

 2)has. The specimen seen by Lesueur was afterward examined by Dekay, who has given 

 us Lesueur's figure with some alterations ; having been taken from a preserved specimen 

 it fails to give some of its characteristics. Some of the figures of this fish, found in differ- 

 ent works of natural history, are exceedingly unnatural. This fact is thus accounted for 

 by Yarrell in his description of the species : ' 4 The difficulty of obtaining a perfect view 

 of this unwieldy fish, either when floating in water, or when, from its great weight, it 

 lies partly imbedded in the soft soil of the sea-shore, has led to the differences which ap- 

 pear in the representations of it which have been published by different naturalists." 



Greenland, Fabinius. Massachusetts, Storer. New York, Mitchill, Dekay. New Jer- 

 sey, Lesueur. 



