THE GREY SHARK. 31 



sail three or four feet high. They are easily approached and struck with a harpoon, when the fish at once 

 darts away, and carries out from seventy to two hundred fathoms of line. Reaching the bottom he 

 rolls himself, and rubs his wound against the ground to get free from the harpoon. After about an 

 hour the fishermen begin to haul upon the harpoon line, which is coiled up in preparation for the fish 

 making another rush. In this way he is often played with for eight or nine hours before he can be 

 got to the surface. When this happens two or three more harpoons are fixed in him, and he is drawn 

 alongside the vessel, stretched fore and aft. A jowl rope is got round his head, and a hawser round 

 his tail. The tail is then cut deep on each side with a hatchet, and the fish in its agony lashes so 

 furiously that the tail becomes broken. Large flesh holes are then cut in the body on both sides, and 

 through these ropes are passed ; then by hauling on one side and slacking the rope on the other the 

 fish is canted over 011 his back. The fishermen then split down the stomach and take out the liver, 

 which is said to weigh about two tons, and to make from six to eight barrels of oil. The rest of the 

 fish is cut adrift, for the fishermen have a superstition that if the bodies were brought on shore 

 the Sharks would abandon the coast. They require to be harpooned with great caution, low down on. 

 the side of the dorsal fin, so that the weapon may go through the intestines ; or they are sometimes 

 struck near the tail vertebrae ; but this operation requires care, as a blow from the tail would stave in 

 the boat. As many as five hundred of these Sharks have been killed in a single season. Their value 

 ranges from 35 to 50 each. Oftentimes a hundred of them together may be seen towards the end 

 of June basking in the sun on the north-west coast of Donegal. In the Orkneys they appear to be 

 rarer. The liver of one twenty-seven feet and a half long captured near Whalsay in November 

 yielded 165 gallons of oil, and was sold for 16 10s. That shark was caught by the herring-fishermen 

 with a six-oared boat. It appears to have taken a mouthful of herrings, and then to have rolled the 

 net with the ropes five times round its body. Two Scottish specimens thirty feet long, caught at 

 Broadhaven, yielded nineteen barrels of oil, eight of which go to the ton. 



The body is thickest in the middle, is nearly cylindrical, and tapers to the two ends. The skin 

 is rough with the shagreen covering, and dark-brown in colour. The head has a conical form, with a 

 short muzzle, covered with a number of circular pores. The eyes are small and near the snout. The 

 iris is brown. There are five branchial clefts in front of the pectoral fins which are remarkable for 

 their enormous depth, so that they go far to encircle the anterior part of the body. The nostrils are 

 small, and placed laterally on the edges of the upper lip. The second dorsal fin is much smaller than 

 the first. From the anal fin to the base of the tail the body has a prominent keel on each side. The 

 caudal fin has a large upper lobe and a small lower lobe, but its form varies with age and the rough 

 usage to which it is subjected. Its food is said by Linnaeus to consist of Medusae, but there are no 

 satisfactory records of animals found in its stomach. A fine specimen cast ashore at Shanklin is 

 preserved in the British Museum. It is a species which especially frequents high northern latitudes. 



FAMILY III. RHINODONTID^E. 



This family is known only from the Rhinodon typicus, caught between the Cape of Good Hope 

 and the Seychelles. Like the Basking Shark, it has a keel on the tail, and the teeth are extremely 

 small, numerous, and conical, and the mouth is placed near to the extremity of the snout. 



FAMILY IV.-NOTIDANIDJE. 



This family is also known only from a single genus, Notidanus, in one species of v/hich there are 

 six gill-openings, forming the section Hexanchus, while in the other three species the gill-openings are 

 seven, forming the section of the genus named Heptanchus. 



THE SIX-GILLED SHARK.* 



The Grey Shark is sometimes eleven or twelve feet long. It possesses but one dorsal fin, 

 which is placed just over the anal fin, and is not supported by a bony spine. The snout is rounded, 

 thick, and blunt. The eyes are large, slightly oval, and placed just above the corners of the gape of 

 the jaw. There is no eyelid to defend the eye. The teeth form a single row in each jaw. In 

 the lower jaw the crowns are oblique and serrated. They are six in number on each side. In 

 the upper jaw there are six teeth on each side ; their points are slender and sharp, without serrations, 



* Notidanus griseut. 



