354 



PLAGIOSTOMES. 



hard bodies, such as ivory. Among these tyrants of 

 the deep we may select for special notice 



The White Shark (Squalus Cardiarias), which attains twenty-five 

 or thirty feet in length, and is celebrated for its ferocity. Its vast 

 mouth is furnished with triangular moveable teeth, the number of 

 which increases with age. In the young there is but a single row, 



-FlG. 287. WHITE SHARK. 



in the adult six. The strength of this fish is very great, and its 

 motions rapid ; its voracity knows no bounds ; hence it is amongst 

 the most dangerous of animals. Men frequently become its victims, 

 and as many as eight or ten tunnies have been found at once in its 

 stomach. Seals, tunnies, and cod.-fish are the ordinary food of sharks, 

 but they attack dead bodies, and even devour each other. 



The shark, indeed, is omnivorous ; he will swallow anything, from 

 tin-pots and canvas to fat pork and anchovies. In the stomach of 

 one taken in the harbour at Sydney were found half a ham, several 

 legs of mutton, the hind quarter of a pig, the head and fore-legs of 

 a bull-dog, with a rope round its neck, a quantity of horseflesh, a 

 piece of sacking, and a ship's scraper. This catalogue would form 

 an interesting fact for a work on ' Digestion and its Derangements.' 

 From the liver of this fish twelve gallons of oil were obtained. 

 DE. BENNETT. 



The Greenland Shark (Lsemargus borecdis) is a large animal, 

 twelve or fourteen feet in length or more, and six or eight in circum- 



