THE GREENLAND SHARK. 555 



On parts of the Norwegian coast, this and other sharks 

 are taken in considerable numbers by the hook. That 

 used for the purpose is large and strong ; attached to 

 it is a swivel and a short chain, to prevent the monster 

 from severing the line with its teeth. A lump of bacon, 

 meat, or seal's-flesh, which is looked on as the most 

 alluring of all, serves as bait. To collect the sharks to 

 the part of the deep fjord where it is purposed to fish for 

 them, a quantity of offal of all kinds, inclosed in a sort of 

 crate, is some days previously sunk to the bottom, the 

 scent of which, when it begins to rot, attracts the crea- 

 tures to the spot. Afterwards the crate is drawn up, and 

 the baited hook substituted in its stead. When the shark 

 seizes the bait, the fisherman either secures the line to 

 the gunwale of the boat, which in consequence is often 

 drawn down to the water's edge, or he attaches to the 

 end of it an empty cask that floats on the water. The 

 shark, on finding itself fast to the hook (and the like is 

 usually the case with its congeners), almost immediately 

 commences rolling itself round and round on the line, in 

 the hopes, possibly, of thereby breaking it ; but after a 

 time it becomes exhausted by its struggles, when it is 

 hauled to the surface. Prior, however, to being taken on 

 board the boat, it is knocked on the head with an iron- 

 shod bludgeon, always at hand for the purpose. 



This shark, like the S. maximus, is chiefly sought after 

 for its liver, which in an adult fish produces, it is said, 

 no less than about forty gallons of oil. In parts of 

 Norway, however, its flesh, according to Bishop Gun- 

 nerus, after being prepared in like manner with the 

 holibut as Hav or Rekling, is often eaten by the poorer 

 classes of people. 



The Picked Dog-Fish (Pigg-Haj, Sw. ; Pig-Haa* 



* The appellation of Pigg, or Pig, signifying a spike, is no doubt 

 derived fi-oin the same origin us the English, this fish having a spine in 



