450 NATURAL HISTORY. 



few dog-fish in their nets. The dog-fish, on finding themselves 

 entangled, immediately commence tearing the nets to pieces 

 with their sharp and powerful teeth. 



The empty eggs of this fish are often found washed up on 

 the sea-shore, and called by the name of " mermaids' purses." 

 They are oblong, and famished at each corner with a long 

 semitransparent convoluted tendril, the use of which is appa- 

 rently to entangle and fix the egg among the sea-weed, and 

 thus prevent it from being washed on shore until the young is 

 hatched. 



A considerable quantity of oil can be obtained from the brain 

 of the dog-fish, and the skin, in common with that of other 

 cartilaginous fishes, is made into shagreen. 



Family II. SqualiJaj. 

 SQUALUS. (Lat. a Shark.} 



Cnrcharias (Gr. a Shark ; from Kap^apof, jagged ; in allusion -to its 

 teeth), the White Shark. 



The WBLITE SHARK is a well-known scourge of the Mediter- 

 ranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. This is the creature so 

 detested by sailors, who, when they have caught a " shirk," 

 subject it to every possible indignity. 



This voracious creature has been known to swallow an entire 

 man, and as it is in the habit of lurking about ships for the 

 sake of the scraps thrown overboard, and almost invariably 

 swallows whatever is cast over the side, the contents of its 

 stomach are often of a most heterogeneous description. The 

 sailors always amuse themselves by seeing what the shark 



