S H A RK. 



'661 



occasionally on the east, though not very far to the 

 north. Its proper home, that is, the locality in which 

 it is most abundant, is the Mediterranean, where it 

 has been known since the days of Aristotle, who called 

 it the " file," probably on account of the roughness of 

 its granulated surface. Its form indicates a very dif- 

 ferent habitat from that of most of the Squalidce ; and 

 any one in the least acquainted with the structures of 

 fish, and the localities for which their structures are 

 adapted, would at once say "this is a bottom fish, an 

 inhabitant of the bank." It would of course be in 

 vain to look for such a fish on the rocky shores, where 

 the water is deep and clear. The banks where tides 

 and currents meet, where there is a constant accumu- 

 lation of animal matters, and abundance of flat fish, 

 are the places where to find this " angel of the deep," 

 in the home of its enjoyment. 



It is well adapted for the office which nature has 

 assigned it. It grows to the length of seven or eight 

 feet, and is very muscular. The division of each of 

 the produced lobes into two by the fins is an advan- 

 tage in swimming which the flat fish, and even the 

 rays, which have the principal lobe, single, do not 

 possess ; and thus it is admirably fitted for beating its 

 prey in their own kind of swimming. When it at- 

 tains the largest size, it is a very heavy fish, not less 

 than 150 pounds in weight ; and this, with the quick- 

 ness of its swimming, enables it to impinge with great 

 force on its prey. Then its eyes and mouth are 

 adapted for forward chasing ; the depth at which it 

 preys is not too great for the view, and the broad 

 mouth and wide gape are ready to dine on a turbot, 

 even of very considerable size. The rays are usually 

 set down as among the articles of food consumed by 

 this singularly ugly fish ; but we have some doubts as 

 to this part of its bill of fare, more especially in the 

 case of those rays that have formidable spines on the 

 tail. Indeed the following up of these spiny rays to 

 take them in the rear would not be a very pleasant 

 business even for the fish, clad in armour as it is. 

 Besides, the rays feed chiefly on what is under them ; 

 and this is rather against their being a common prey 

 to this species, though the peculiar structure of the 

 hammer-head fits it for seizing them with the greatest 

 certainty. This fish is so peculiarly formed, and so 

 powerful, that it would be very desirable accurately 

 to determine its place and function in nature, but at 

 present the data are far from complete. 



VVe have already mentioned the size which this fish 

 attains. The body of it is formed something like a 

 tadpole ; that is, the head is, if the lateral fins are not 

 taken into the estimate, so far wider than the body, 

 and the body, the distinction between which and the 

 fins is much more conspicuous than in the rays, is 

 cylindrical, or has the sides parallel from the head to 

 the first dorsal, and then it tapers gradually to the tail. 

 The plane of the head is nearly circular ; the eyes 

 far apart, though both on the upper surface ; and the 

 temporal openings are behind the ears, large and 

 crescent-shaped. The anterior margins of the pecto- 

 rals touch the sides of the head, about the middle of 

 their lengths, so as to leave about a semicircle of the 

 outline of the head free. After this they diverge in 

 nearly straight lines, at rather less than a right angle, 

 until their distal extremities are nearly as far asunder 

 as from the mouth to the first dorsal. They return 

 in lobes nearly at right angles to their front lines, 

 and then return rounded, overlapping the anterior 

 aud external edge of the ventrals. The ventrals ex- 



tend as far as the first dorsal, projecting beyond the 

 lobes of the pectorals anteriorly, and slightly bilobate 

 in their posterior margins. The general form of the 

 disc is thus nearly a rhombus, but with the posterior 

 sides deeply notched between the pectorals and ven- 

 trals, and the anterior ones very slightly between the 

 head and the pectorals. The tail is nearly as long as 

 the body from the head to the first dorsal, bearing the 

 two dorsals, and a caudal of two triangular lobes, one 

 on the upper side and another on the under. The 

 opening of the mouth extends nearly along the whole 

 semicircle from the one dorsal fin to the other, so that 

 the gape, when at its full extent, is circular and very 

 wide. The upper part is shagreened with tubercles, 

 and there is a row of spines along the dorsal line, 

 which are said to be much more prominent in some 

 than in others. The upper part is mottled with brown 

 and greyish, and the under part dull white. It is 

 ovoviviparous, and the young, to the number of about 

 a dozen, are all produced about the same time, as is 

 usual in the members of the family which are not 

 very discursive. The flesh, like that of the others, is 

 hardly edible, and thus the fish is not sought after. 

 It is not so much disliked as the species which feed 

 nearer the surface, as it interferes comparatively little 

 with the fisheries. Hence it is allowed to enjoy its 

 splendid name, and feed its very unhandsome carcass 

 quietly in the deep. 



PRISTIS {Saw-fish'). This is also made one of the 

 leading genera by Cuvier, and it is the last of the 

 family in the order of his arrangement. There are 

 several species, but this article has already extended 

 to such a length, that we can notice only one as a 

 specimen of the general appearance and habits. The 

 generic characters are : the same physiology as the 

 rest of the family ; they have the anterior part of 

 the body flattened, and the gill-openings pierced 

 below, as in the rays, and their teeth are small and 

 round, like those of the smooth-hound. The most 

 remarkable of their character, however, is the form 

 of the muzzle, which is lengthened into a very long 

 weapon, formed like the blade of a sword. This 

 weapon is furnished on each side with a row of very 

 large and strong teeth, standing at some distance 

 from each other, and forming altogether one of the 

 most terrific weapons that can well be imagined. 

 The species which we shall notice is 



The common Saw-fish (P. antiquorum). This fish 

 has been known from remote antiquity as one of the 

 monsters of the deep, and the present generic name 

 is the one which was given to this species by the 

 Greeks. This fish is more generally distributed than 

 almost any other ; but it is a fish of the high seas, 

 and rarely, if ever, makes its appearance on the 

 shores. It is found on the margins and in the open- 

 ing's of the polar ice, and probably it passes freely 

 under the fields and floes ; it is also found under the 

 equator, and equally in the southern seas and the 

 northern. It thus, in all likelihood, passes purely 

 along the same latitudes as the British islands ; but 

 not a single specimen is mentioned by the authorities 

 as having occurred on any part of the coast. The 

 colour of the saw-fish is very dark grey on the upper 

 part, passing into ashen-grey on the sides, and nearly 

 into white on the middle of the belly ; the skin of the 

 upper part, excluding that of the lengthened snout, is 

 covered with hard tubercles, with their sharp points 

 turned backwards ; the covering of the snout with 

 these would make it a very serious weapon, from the 



