THE BRITISH TOPE. 27 



this way from a depth of thirty or forty fathoms. Its appetite shows a varied taste ; the stomach or' 

 one fish six feet long was found to contain a large Piked Dog-fish, a Conger Eel, and a Grey Gurnard. 

 Another was hungry enough to take the bait, though its stomach contained four Mackerel, half a 

 Garfish, and a quantity of Herrings, which the fishermen, finding uninjured, afterwards sold for 

 eighteen-pence. On one occasion a Blue Shark leaped a considerable distance out of the water to seize 

 a piece of beef hanging on the quarter of a ship, and it is well known to attack man ; but as it rarely 

 enters harbours or approaches close to the land, its human victims are few. Fishermen assert that ita 

 sense of smell is offended by nauseous odours, so that it may be driven away by pouring bilge-water 

 into the sea where it shows itself. The muscular vitality of these fishes is as remarkable as that of 

 Reptiles and Amphibians, for in one recorded instance, after a Shark had been caught, and the body 

 severed from the head and thrown overboard, it continued swimming about for hours. The power of 

 the Shark's tail often makes the fish an inconvenient neighbour when drawn on deck, but when the 

 tail is chopped off this danger is removed. It is, however, usual to disable the animal by a blow on 

 the snout. It is occasionally accompanied by its young, which in June are about eighteen inches or two 

 feet long. It remains in British seas for a time, straying as far north as the Orkneys, throughout 

 the summer, and disappearing in the autumn. Hundreds arc captured in a season by British fisher- 

 men ; but the body is used only for manure, and oil is made from the liver. The largest examples 

 reach a length of fourteen feet, but the usual size is six or eight feet. It is distributed throughout 

 temperate and tropical seas, and has been recorded from Pondicherry, St. Helena, and the Mediterranean, 

 but neither the limit nor direction of its migrations is at present known. The animal derives its nani3 

 from the colour of the fins and the upper parts of the body, though the belly remains white. The mouth 

 is placed far behind the projecting nose, and ai-med with triangular teeth which have their margins 

 serrated like saws. The skin is rather rough, and the pectoral fins are large. The other fins are 

 all small. All the fishes of this genus have the first dorsal fin placed over the space between the 

 pectoral and ventral fins, and there never is a spine in front of this fin. The gill-openings 

 are small, five in number, and are placed just in front of and above the pectoral fin. The majority 

 of fishes allied to the Blue Shark are from the neighbourhood of the Malay Archipelago and Indian 

 seas, but two or three species out of the thirty-five which are known frequent the West Indies and 

 Tropical America. 



There are many genera allied to Carcharias which have no representatives in the British seas. 

 Among these are the Hemigaleus, from Java and Amboyna; Loxodon, from the Indian Ocean; 

 Galeocerdo, which is represented in the Arctic seas by a species ten feet and a half long, while smaller 

 species are found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and Australian seas. Thalassorhinus is found 

 in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Thess four genera are all characterised by having 

 spiracles, which distinguish them from Carcharias. They differ from each other in the characters of 

 the teeth, lips, and tail. 



The next genus, Galeus, differs from all the foregoing in wanting the pit at the root of the tail. 

 Only two species are known, one from Japan, and the other (Gakus canis) is the common British 

 Tope, widely distributed throughout all temperate and tropical seas, and ranging to the Pacific and 

 Antarctic Oceans. It is common on the English south coasts in summer, and reaches a length of 

 about six feet, but is usually smaller. The young are broughtPforth in summer. The number produced 

 at a time varies. Couch records twenty-one at a birth, and sometimes thirty-two, but says that fifty- 

 two have been known. The young when born are about a foot in length ; they do not attain their full 

 size until the second year, and remain near the coast through the first winter, though, as their size 

 increases, they retire into deep water and swim low. When hooked, this species often, like the Blue 

 Shark, twists the whole length of the line round its body. In France and Italy the Tope is used for 

 food, being eaten fresh ; but more frequently the flesh is dried, and afterwards soaked and grilled or 

 stewed, but the only use made of it in England is melting the liver for oil. The young are 

 commonly known to fishermen as the Miller's Dog, and the larger specimens as the Penny Dog. 

 The young have the snout much shorter than that of the adult. The colour is a dark ash-grey above 

 and white below. The teeth are serrated on the outer border, from which the smooth cusp projects 

 outwards, but the broad front teeth are serrated on both sides. The gill-openings are five, placed 

 in front of the pectoral fin, and are very short. There are one hundred and forty vertebrae. 



