FISHES. 583 



on in August. They are harpooned as they lie basking on 

 the surface, for the sake of the oil one bushel of liver leav- 

 ing nearly one bushel of oil. 



B. Sharks without an anal fin. 

 1. No spine in front of the dorsal. 



Gen. Scymnus, Cuv. 



Teeth above lancet shaped j below broad and flat, ob- 

 liquely edged, with the point directed backwards. 



170. SCYMNUS BOEEALIS, Scoresby. Haskerding. The. 



Greenland Shark. D. F. 



All the fins small ; gill openings very short ; shape 

 rather resembling the last, but the tail is shorter, 

 thicker, and much less pointed ; spiracle small, at the 

 back of the eye ; skin very rough ; ventrals and anals 

 small, pointed j colour brown, with a dull blue tinge ; 

 usual length 12 to 15 ft., but in the Greenland seas 

 often reaches 25 ft. Of all the sharks this goes up 

 nearest to the North Pole. 



Has been occasionally taken off the south coast of 

 Sweden, but never so large as on the north-west of Norway, 

 where they are far more common. Off Bergen they are met 

 with in 250 fathoms. Fabricius says that when they hear 

 voices, they come up to the surface, so the fishermen always ' 

 talk low when approaching a school of fish. This is the most 

 voracious of all the sharks. Gunnerus relates that he saw a 

 whole reindeer taken out of the belly of a basking shark ; and 

 Fabricius found a seal, eight large cod, a ling four feet long, 

 a great head of a halibut, and several lumps of blubber in a 

 basking shark of fourteen feet long. It is the very tiger of 

 the north seas, and the whale and even seals are not safe 

 from its attacks. This is the only species which is known 

 to come on the coasts of Finland east of the North Cape. 

 West of the Cape we find lamna cornubica, acanthias vul- 

 isj and selache maxima. 



