GEN. SCYMNUS. GREENLAND SHARK. 315 



fins.* This fish is very troublesome to fishermen 

 from its numbers and voracity, by destroying their 

 bait and lines, and becoming entangled in their nets 

 in the room of more valuable captures. Among the 

 "Western Islands of Scotland and the Orkney Islands, 

 where these fish actually swarm, they are frequently 

 salted and dried for winter food, and are considered 

 not unpalatable. Oil is also extracted from their 

 livers, twenty individuals yielding about a Scotch 

 pint. Like most others of its congeners, it is ovo- 

 viviparous, and produces many young at a time. 



Gen. CXIV. SCYMNUS. Has all the fins very 

 small, the anal wanting, and no spines in front of 

 the dorsals; the temporal orifices are large, and 

 placed above as well as behind the eyes ; teeth lan- 

 ceolate in the upper jaw, slightly curved, in the 

 lower jaw crooked at the point, and the cutting edges 

 crenate : skin rough. 



(Sp. 229.) S. borealis. Greenland Shark. A 

 native of the northern seas, where it occurs in great 

 abundance, but only three instances are recorded of 

 its occurrence on our coasts. One was caught in the 

 Pentland Firth in 1803; another was found dead 

 at Burra Firth, Unst, in 1824; and a third was 

 taken on the coast of Durham in April ] 840, which 

 is now preserved in the Durham University Museum. 

 No opportunity, therefore, of observing its habits has 

 offered itself to British naturalists ; but an interest- 

 ing account has been given by Scoresby, in his work 

 on the Arctic Regions, and also by Fabricius, in his 

 * YarrelTs British Fishes, vol. ii. p. 526. 



