SHAN-SE 



SHARK 



373 



alternative routes are proposed to the commercially 

 very important provinces of southern China : the 

 one which apparently the government of India 

 favours is an extension of the Burman system 

 northwards from Bhamo. 



The first Shan state to rise to the level of his- 

 torical importance was the Man kingdom, the 

 ruler of which in the 13th century conquered all 

 Burma, the upper parts of Siam and the Malay 

 Peninsula, and made his influence felt from Tali 

 in China as far as Java and Cambodia. All the 

 northern portions of this extensive empire, includ- 

 ing Burma, were mled by M.-iu princes down to 

 1.V4. Shortly after that date the tables were 

 turned, and most of the Shan states became tributary 

 to the emperor of Pegu. Other powerful states 

 aliout the same period were Zimme and Vien-chang. 

 The former still exists, but subject to Siam ; the 

 latter, a Laos state, was destroyed in the 18th 

 century. About 1774-77 Siam drove out the Bur- 

 mese and Peguans, and made herself mistress of 

 the southern Shan states, Zimme and Vien-chang. 

 Ruins of large cities exist in great numbers through- 

 out the middle portions of the Shan country ; they 

 are the relics of the ephemeral capitals of different 

 Shan states. 



See Holt S. Hallett, A Thousand Miles on an Elephant 

 (1890); Colquhoun, Amonrnt the Sttant ( 1885 ) ; Cheek, 

 Siam and Lao* (Amer. Presb. Mission Board); Carl 

 Bock, Temple* and Elephants ( 1884 ) ; E. Aymonier's 

 articles ' Les Tchames et lean Religions ' in the Revue de 

 VHistoire da Seltffiont for 1891 ; and books quoted 

 tinder SIAM. 



Shan-se, a province of northern China, having 

 the Hoang-ho on its western boundary. See CHINA. 



Shaplnshay. See ORKNEY ISLANDS. 



Shapira. See FORGKRY. 



Mharebroker. See BROKER, and STOCK EX- 

 CHANGE. 



Shareholder. See COMPANY. 



Sliari (i.e. river), the principal feeder of Lake 

 Tsad ( q. v. ) or Tchad. 



Shark* a common name for most of the Elasmo- 

 branch fishes included in the sub-order Selachoidei. 

 They are voracious fishes, with two or three excep- 

 tions carnivorous, the smaller forms often eating 

 crustaceans and molluscs, as well as fishes, to 

 which the larger forms almost exclusively restrict 

 themselves. They sometimes devour men who 

 swim incautiously in warm seas. Unlike the 

 flattened rays, the sharks usually preserve the 

 typical fish-like form, and the ^'ill-slits are lateral, 

 not ventral. In most the skin is covered with 

 minute thickly-set skin-teeth, really like those of 

 thornbacks, but much smaller and more numerous. 

 The teeth on the jaws are very sharp, generally 

 triangular, and are disposed in rows. In most cases 

 only the row on the ridge of the jaw is in use, but 

 aa this is worn away it is replaced by the next row, 

 which is gradually moved forward. Some of the 

 sharks are viviparous, others are oviparous. In 

 the latter each egg is enclosed in a horny ' mer- 

 maid's purse.' 



As to their distribution, sharks, though most 

 numerous in the tropics, are represented in almost 

 nil seas, and many venture up estuaries and riviM--. 

 One species occurs in Lake Nicaragua. Many live 

 in the open sea, and voyagers know how they 

 follow the ships, hungrily swallowing with little 

 discrimination what refuse is thrown overboard. 

 Though few are like the Portuguese Shark ( Centro- 

 icymnim ctelolepix) in living in deep water, not a 

 few live a sluggish existence at the bottom of 

 relatively shallow water near the shore. Many of 

 the smaller forms are gregarious, and prey upon 

 the shoals of herring ana mackerel. 



The classification of sharks has not yet been 



placed on a thoroughly firm basis. Gunther recog- 

 nises the following families. Carchariidse include 

 the genus Carcharias, of which the Blue Shark 

 (Carcharias glaticus), 12-15 feet in length, and the 

 larger White Shark (C. vulgaris) are representa- 

 tive ; the genus Galeocerdo, with several formid- 

 able species ; the genus Galeus, of which the Tope 



White Shark (Curchttrius rttlyaris). 



(Galeus cants) occurs on British coasts ; the genus 

 Zygjena, notable for the large transverse eye-bear- 

 ing lobes of the snout to which these voracious 

 fishes owe their name Hammer-head (q.v.); the 

 genus Mustelus, with small species known as 

 'Hounds.' In Mustelus lievis and Carcharias 

 glaiicut there is a peculiar placenta-like connection 

 between the mother-fish and the yolk-sac of the 

 unborn young. 



Lamnidie include numerous large pelagic sharks, 

 such as the Porbeagle (Oxyrhina cornubica), 

 which frequents the North Atlantic, attains a 

 length of 10 feet, and is said to swallow its 

 prey whole ; the Man-eater Shark ( Carcharodon 

 rondeletii), in all tropical and temperate seas, 

 attaining a length of 36 feet; the Fox-shark or 

 Thresher (Alopecias vulpes), not uncommon around 

 British coasts, attaining a length of 13 feet, not- 

 able for the enormously elongated upper lobe of 

 its tail, and for its voracious attacks on her- 

 ring and mackerel ; the Basking-shark ( Kelache 

 maxima), attaining a length of 30 feet, living on 

 small fishes, often in the habit of lying passive, 

 and like the thresher harmless to man unless 

 attacked. The Challenger explorers dredged numer- 

 ous large teeth belonging to some shark of the 

 genus Carcharodon ; as these measured 5 inches 

 along the side and 4 across the base, there must 

 lie some larger species than Carcharodon rondeletii 

 either still alive or not long since extinct. 



Notidanida- are a small family including a few 

 tropical or subtropical sharks, sometimes called 

 cow-sharks, and referable to the genus Notidanus, 

 from which, however, some distinguish two other 

 genera, Hexanchus with six gill-slits, and Hept- 

 anchus with seven. 



Scylliidre are a family of email sharks, usually 

 called dog-fishes, inducting Scylliiim caniculum 

 and S. catultis, the common dog-fishes of British 

 shores ; Stegostoma tigrinum, a beautiful striped 

 shark frequenting the Indian Ocean ; and the Indo- 

 Pacific ground-shark (Crossorhinus), which lurks 

 on the bottom, and is protectively coloured. 



Cestraciontidse, a family now somewhat decadent, 

 twenty-two of the twenty-five genera being extinct. 

 The living forms e.g. Cestracion or Heteroduntus 

 galeatiis are called Port Jackson sharks. The 

 front teeth are small and sharp, those behind are 

 flat and arranged in pavement-like rows. 



Spinacidie are a family including the small spiny 

 dog-fishes e.g. Acanthias vulgaris and A. blain- 

 villii on British coasts ; the voracious Greenland 

 Shark ( Liemargus borealis ), which attains a length 

 of about 15 feet ; the Black Dog-fish ( Centra- 

 scy Ilium fabricii ) of Arctic seas ; Centroscymnug 

 coelolepis, which is caught off the coasts of Portugal 



