FAMILY SQUALID^. 357 



GENUS SELACHUS. Cuvier. 



Branchial apertures all hrforc the pcctnrah, lonsr, and ncurhj surrounding the neck. Teeth 

 small, not denticulated, nf various forms, for the raost part conical. 



Oes. This genus comprises at jjrcscnt but one well determined species, which lias been 

 reproduced under diircreiit names. 



THE BASKING SHARK. 



SeLACHU.S .A!,1XIMUS. 



PL.A.TE LXIIl. FIG 203. (MiLE.) 



Squalns maxLmxLs. LlNNEUS. 



S. pcrrgrimis. Blainvii.!,e, Anil. Mus. Vol. 18, pi. C, fig. 1. 



•Squahis ;(iajimii.«, Bashing SItark. MiTciiiLi,, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vol. 1, |i. 480. 



.S. elephas. LEsnsnB, Jour. Acad. Nal. Sciences, Vol. 2, p. 343, pi. 11. 



S. mnximvs. Riciiaedson, Faun. Bor. .\mericana, Vol. 3, p. 201. 



^'. (Sdacke) maximus. Stoker, Massachusclls Report, p. 407. 



Characteristics. Dark slate. Tail with a carina on each side. Length exceeding thirty feet. 



Description. Body cylindrical, fusiform. Surface with numerous wrinkles, and covered 

 with minute sharp prickles, distributed in small groups, and producing a roughness in the 

 direction of the head. Head small. Snout smooth, blunt, and furnisiied with numerous cir- 

 cular and oblong mucous pores. Temporal orifice very small, and placed just over and behind 

 the angle of the jaws. Eyes very small, not exceeding three inches in diameter, and j)laced 

 on the margin of the upper jaw. Branchial apertures with the posterior pair smallest, the 

 anterior nearly meeting beneath. The nostrils anterior to the eyes, on the edge of the upper 

 lip. Teeth in the upper jaw, of various forms, recurved, edged but not serrated, subconic, 

 triangular-conic and even bifid, in six rows ; in the lower jaw, with seven rows, rather larger, 

 sublanccolate, conic, elongate ; (according to Dr. Storer, fourteen Inindreil in iho lower jaw 

 alone.) 



The first dorsal fin triangular, concave behind, about four fc(-t high, pointed behind. The 

 second arises six feet behind the first ; small, sixteen inches high ; its origin anterior to the 

 anal, and pointed behind. Pectorals large, falciform, and five feet and a half long, with a 

 base of nearly two feet. Ventrals subtriangular, and nearly equidistant between the first and 

 second dorsal, with a base of nearly two feet. Male organs about three feet long, and cylin- 

 drical. Anal fin three feet behind the vent, subtriangular, with a pointed process behind. 

 Tail with a strangulated appearance above, and below at the base of tlio caudal, and an ele- 

 vated keel on its sides nearly two feet long. The caudal fin wilh unequal lobes ; the upper- 

 most six feet long, with a small triangular liii nt-ar the tip ; the lower lolie shorter, four feet 

 long, and wide. 



