MARINE MAMMALS, AND FISHES 101 



search of anything edible. Boys angled for them 

 from the end of the pier. 



Then they disappeared, and have not . since 

 returned. A few venture down the length of 

 Aberdeen ; scarce any beyond. The relief was great. 

 Perhaps no more signal change in the balance 

 of North Sea life has happened within living 

 memory. The presence of the trawlers is as 

 nothing, compared with another advent. 



Allied to this little dog-fish is the Greenland 

 shark, which grows to fifteen or twenty feet in 

 length. Big as he is, even he shows the respect for 

 human life common to all our visitors. Unlike 

 most sharks, which hail from the south, this is a 

 truly Arctic form, sending only a few out-swimmers 

 down our way. He is probably the most sluggish 

 of the sharks, his fins being comparatively small, 

 and unsuited for swift locomotion. When the 

 whaler abandons the stripped carcase, these sharks 

 gather in multitudes to the feast. 



The so-called " hounds " have about the same 

 relation to the " dogs " as the greyhound to the 

 terrier, and owe their name probably to the habit 

 of hunting in packs. They are comparatively 

 small, harmless, shore-haunting fish, never absent 

 from our summer seas. Two species are common. 



