THE SHARK. 263 



uny teeth of the front row are lost. It will be 

 understood, from this description, that the teeth 

 in question cannot have any fangs."* 



The shark, no doubt, sheds its teeth at certain 

 periods, and the posterior rows are to supply, in 

 succession, the places of those so lost, as, in a 

 number of jaws that I have examined of different 

 species, the second row may frequently be seen 

 in a perpendicular direction, advancing to sup- 

 ply the place of the first. With respect to such 

 teeth having fangs, those of most species have 

 merely rudiments of them, excepting the squalus 

 cornubicus, or porbeagle shark, which has two 

 distinct fangs to every tooth, and they may be 

 seen in the second and third, as well as in the 

 first rows. The posterior rows having their points 

 turned backwards, prevent their prey, when 

 seized, from escaping. The teeth of the shark 

 are used by the Polynesian natives, fixed in rows, 

 as knives. They are attached also to their spears, 

 are used for cutting themselves on occasions of 

 joy or grief, and were employed, previously to 

 the introduction of European knives, for the or- 

 namental carving of their weapons, domestic 

 utensils, &c. 



There is a species of shark at New Zealand 



* Blumenbach's Comparative Anatomy, by Lawrence and 

 Coulson, page 76. 



