4^: rORUKAOLE. 



placed them together, and lie assigns as his reason for this 

 change of opinion, that he had had opportunities of examining 

 four exami)les, which had been taken on different parts of the 

 coast since ISoT — the (hite of the publication of the first edition 

 of his work — and which has induced him to believe that the 

 differences observed between them and the more frequent forms, 

 are onlv the effects of "reater aire. 



Something like this [ have myself noticed; for in the largest 

 Porbeagle I have ever seen, and which measured almost nine 

 feet in length, the snout appeared much smaller than in ap})a- 

 rently much younger examples; and the first dorsal fin appeared, 

 even by measurement, nearer to the tail than is usual in the 

 ]*orbeagle. The lateral ridge was carried along so high on the 

 side, as to be nearly level with tlie flattened surface of the 

 back, near the setting on of the tail; from which position it 

 was bent down suddenly to i)ass along its usual situation on 

 the tail, iu the manner represented in Donovan's plate 108. 

 The two divisions of the tail were nearly equal; and so dif- 

 ferent was the appearance of this fish from that of the smaller 

 and more common examples of the Porbeagle, as to leave the 

 impression that it was specifically .distinct; until a further 

 examination removed all doubt on the subject. 



This fish is not noticed iu the tenth edition of Linna-us's 

 System, having probably been confounded, as were several others, 

 with the AVhite Shark; until it was distinguished from the latter 

 by Dr. Borlase, in his "Natural History of Cornwall." 



One of the first of the two examples of the Beaumaris 

 Shark, as described by l*ennant, was a female, and contained 

 young ones within it, which, however, were only two in number; 

 a circumstance which would lead us to suppose that it is a 

 scanty breeder. But it is to be regretted that those young 

 ones were not more closely examined and described; as from 

 them we might have been able to collect more clearly the 

 proof of their being either of a new or a well-known and 

 recognised species. 



The Porbeagle is a common visitor on the Avestern coasts in 

 siunmer, and not unfrecpiently it wanders along the eastern 

 borders of England, and even of Scotland. An instance has 

 been known of its having been taken even in Orkney. It 

 usually proceeds in small .scattered companies, preying on 



