158 Thresher and Porbeagle Shark. 



1887 (Webb). Its priority of a Kent visit appears in Boys' 

 "Fishes of Sandwich," 1792. (An Ilfracombe specimen, 1865, 

 contained two thornbacks and a bass.) 



(2) The long-tailed THEESHER SHARK (Alopias vulpes) has 

 been captured several times around Kent (Boys noted it 1792). 

 One was taken off Folkestone in October, 1867. It measured 

 13| feet, the tail alone 6 feet 10 inches, and it weighed 3| cwt. 

 It contained 27 mackerel. A second, 4 feet long, was secured 

 by the Folkestone fishermen in June, 1868, and still a third 

 got entangled in their herring-nets in October, 18G9, which 

 measured 14 feet 10 inches long. Nineteen mackerel and two 

 herrings were found in its stomach. A 12 feet long example 

 the Walmer fishermen were successful in taking, 24th October, 

 1882. Tales of its great fights with enormous whales have 

 been often told ; but some authorities are inclined to think there 

 has been error of observation, and credit the Killer Whale 

 (Orca) as the more probable deadly aggressor. 



(3) Another species which attains considerable dimensions 

 when fully adult is the PORBEAGLE SHARK (Lamna cornubicd). 

 This in fact is a pretty constant annual summer or autumn 

 visitant to the Kent coast, and more irregularly off Essex. 

 A very fine example was exhibited on a barrow in the streets of 

 Dover, October, 1889. The crew of a Folkestone fishing-boat had 

 secured it with difficulty after doing great damage to their nets. 

 It was 9 feet 3 inches long, and weighed 4J cwt. This and the 

 Long Sand specimen infra must have been nearly full-grown.* 

 In September, 1867, a specimen, 8| feet long, was caught by 

 the Margate fishermen in a mackerel-net. In 1874, some Essex 

 fishermen took one 8 feet 2 inches long and nigh 20 stone weight. 

 Again. 20th October, 1892, near the Long Sand Light, a Shore- 

 ham boat fishing for mackerel took to their surprise instead a 

 Porbeagle nigh 10 feet long and about 5 cwt. This they 

 exhibited at Harwich. On 8th December of the same year a 

 male 7 feet 10 inches long was secured in the Colne estuary, 

 opposite the Martello Tower. 



* South-Eastem Naturalist, Vol. I., 1890. 



