326 THE GREENLAND SHARK. 



could not harm the whale. Equally unintelligible is the 

 cause of the thrasher's hereditary antipathy. 



Of the Toper, it seems very needful to record that its 

 flesh is freely eaten for food by the French and Italians. 



Passing over the Picked Dog and Spurious Shark, we 

 come to the Greenland Shark (Scymnus, or Squalus bore- 

 alis), which was formerly confused with the more formid- 

 able carcharias. Crantz, who makes this mistake, de- 

 scribes a specimen which he himself saw,* as measuring 

 between two and three fathoms in length, with two fins 

 on the back, and six on the belly; the tail unequally 

 divided into two parts. Its colour was gray, though in 

 the water it appeared as white as silver. The skin was 

 very rough, and used for polishing wood. In the head, 

 which measured two feet in length, and was shaped like a 

 truncated cone, the two large nostrils immediately at- 

 tracted attention. The mouth, a foot wide, was not situ- 

 ated at the anterior extremity of the head, but a full span 

 on its under side, in a transverse direction. Five or six 

 rows of small pointed teeth were ranged in the upper jaw; 

 the nether containing two rows of fifty-two large teeth, 

 rather hooked, and extremely sharp ; half of them bent 

 one way, and half another, so that they resembled a double- 

 toothed saw, and the Greenlanders formerly used them 

 instead of that implement. 



In Norway and Iceland, adds Crantz, the flesh is cut 

 into rashers, and dried in the air ; but the Greenlanders 

 do not much esteem it, and eat it only when it is dry and 

 semi-putrid. 



Dr. Scoresby furnishes a very interesting description 

 of the animal. Its length he estimates at from twelve 



* Crantz. " History of Greenland," i., pp. 93, 94. 



