THE BASKING SHARK. 453 



attached to a chain eight or ten feet in length. Sharks 

 are however very wary and suspicious fish, and though 

 they will often follow a ship for days, still they some- 

 times will not readily take a bait. An old sailor's dodge 

 on such occasions is to lower a boat, and go as if to 

 take it up, and the shark fearing to be balked of his 

 prey will then sometimes suddenly swallow it. This 

 fish is an occasional, but fortunately, a rare visitor to 

 the British coasts. There is, however, another known 

 as the " Basking Shark " (Squalus Maximus] some- 

 times called the "sun-fish," 



"which is the largest of all sharks, and of all true fishes." 

 " One was seen by Mr. Yarrel at Brighton of 36 feet, and 

 one was taken in Cornwall, 31 feet 6 inches. These fish per- 

 form a regular migration along the west coasts of Ireland, 

 where they are taken on the Sunfish Bank, situated about 

 100 miles west of Clew Bay. They are found in May and 

 June on this bank in great numbers. While they lie motion- 

 less on the surface basking in the sun, their large dorsal fin 

 rises three or four feet out of the water. At this time they 

 are easily approached and struck with the harpoon." * 



These fish, however, though much larger, are not 

 the dangerous enemies white sharks are. The basking 

 shark is said not to be a voracious fish, and is neither 

 to be enticed nor caught by the same bait or mode 

 of fishing as the other. It is sought after and killed, 

 like the whale, principally for its oil, which is extracted 

 from the liver of these sharks, some of the largest of 

 which will. yield as much as 1600 Ibs of oil. f 



On the northern coasts of Norway there is a regular 

 shark fishery, where four kinds of shark are captured 



* History of the Fishes of the British Islands, by Jonathan Couch, 

 VoJ. i., p. '65. 



| The Commercial Products of the Sea, by P. L. Simmonds, 1879, p. 230. 



