THE BASKING AND THE GREENLAND SHARK. 553 



deep into its body. Subsequently operations are carried 

 on in a similar manner as when the whale is the object 

 of attack. If the creature be lean, it at times can hold 

 out for a whole day ; but if it be fat, three or four hours 

 usually suffice to tire it out, when it is hauled alongside 

 the boat. Its tail is then partially severed to prevent its 

 struggles, and afterwards it is stabbed with lances until 

 quite dead. It is now turned over in the water, so that 

 its belly lies uppermost, when it is secured by a rope to 

 the mast. One of the men, provided with a long and 

 sharp knife, then makes an incision in the fish suffi- 

 ciently large to introduce his arm, upon which he severs 

 the ligaments by whichthe liver is attached to the body. 

 Finally the belly is ripped up, on which the liver 

 floats to the surface, in like manner as a huge feather- 

 bed, when the rope by which the fish is secured to the 

 boat must be instantly severed, or the latter would be 

 carried to the bottom with the creature. 



The Greenland Shark (Ha-skerding , Svv. ; Haa-skjaird- 

 ing, Haa-kj (erring, Norw. ; Hav-kal [from the Icelandic 

 Hd-kaU~\, Dan. ; S. borealis, Scoresby), whose proper home 

 is the Arctic seas, into which it is said to penetrate deeper 

 than any of its congeners, is somewhat scarce in the 

 Bonus Skargard and Cattegat. It is but rarely that it 

 finds its way as far south as the Sound, and never, I 

 believe, into the Baltic. But on the western coast of 

 Norway, up to the North Cape itself, it is by no means 

 uncommon. Next to the S. maximus, it is the largest of 

 the sharks frequenting the Scandinavian seas. Its usual 

 length is from twelve to fifteen feet, but, according to 

 Bishop Gunnerus, it attains as much as twenty-five feet. 

 Its senses of smell and hearing are very acute ; and it 

 is said that, though habitually dwelling in the deeps, 

 which it seldom quits except in pursuit of prey, even 

 the voices of men will bring it to the surface. Hence 



