The Basking-Shark.] OF ORKNEY. . 1?3 



The length of this fish was 23 feet, from the nose to the point 

 of the tail ; the girth round the belly about sixteen ; the snout 

 short, being about a foot over the mouth, blunt and pierced 

 full of small holes ; the mouth large, not shaped like the dog- 

 fish kind, but liker those of the fishes, i. e. with two extended 

 jaws ; the eye was small, placed within about two inches of 

 the rictus of the mouth, in the upper lip ; the teeth small, in 

 five or six rows, were all so loose that they might be moved 

 with a finger ; there were five large openings, reaching from 

 the neck to the throat, answering to the gills of other fishes ; 

 within the mouth might be seen the gills, fringed with a sort of 

 small bristles approaching the nature of whalebone ; the first 

 back-fin very large, being about four feet high ; the next less, 

 being something more than a foot ; the tail was four feet long, 

 and six feet between the tips, which were equal in length, 

 only the upper was something broader and blunter than the 

 lower, and not so as in most sharks, with the upper half 

 longest ; the pectoral fins were near four feet long ; the ven- 

 tral two and a half, with two genitals three feet long each ; 

 the anal fin was fifteen inches high ; these fins all shaped like 

 others of the shark-kind, having a long and sharp process 

 next the body. The stomach was full of a red stuff, like bruis- 

 ed crabs, or the roe of the sea-urchin, but no fragments offish 

 could I find in it ; and, indeed, both its appearance, manners, 

 and weapons, do not indicate it to be a ravenous fish. When 

 the liver was taken out it loaded a small boat, and contained 

 something more than six barrels of oil; this being a male, 

 did not give so much as a female would. I was told of one 



