THE FISHES 



MASSACHUSETTS 



231 



have here transcribed, not having been able to see a second specimen. When I 

 fish, it was lying upon the beach, where it was entirely exposed at low tide, and 



6 



The tide was tlowinur in 



.- 



if not altogether, covered by water when the tide was hi 



when I examined it, which compelled me to make a more rapid survey than could 



i 



have been wished. It had been opened, and its viscera were removed. The liver 

 filled eight barrels, and furnished six barrels of oil. 



Amono* our fishermen this species is known as the Bone Shark. It is rarely observed 

 on our coast, and when taken is generally harpooned. For my knowledge of it in onr 

 waters, I am almost entirely indebted to my old and tried friend, Capt. Atwood. Within 

 his remembrance he has known but three to be captured in 



In 1835, an individual 



became entangled in a mackerel-net, and was then harpooned. In 1836 or 1837, a second 

 was caught in a net; and after being drowned, its carcase was freed by the fishermen 

 from the net, and it afterward drifted ashore in a state of decomposition. After lying 

 upon the beach several days, a fisherman visited it for the purpose of procuring a t 

 for his hens, as is the custom at Provincetown, he supposing it to be a dead whale. 



what the animal was, he removed the liver and sold the oil in Boston for 



A 



5 



In 1847, a third 



hundred and three dollars, it having produced five or six barrels of oil 

 was captured, then harpooned and drawn ashore. 



In 1848, a vessel going to the coast of Maine for humpback whales, fell in with many 

 of this species off Cape Elizabeth, and secured several of them. A tradition exists among 

 the fishermen, that this species was taken in quite large numbers one hundred year 



ago, in the spring, for their oil. 



This species was described and figured by Lesueur, from a specimen taken near New 

 York, in 1822, as being previously unknown to naturalists, under the name of Squalus 

 ph 



Some of the figures of this fish, found in differ 



This fact is thus accounted for 



The specimen seen by Lesueur was afterward examined by Dekay, who has gh 

 Lesueur's figure with some alterations ; having been taken from a preserved specimen 

 it fails to give some of its characteristics, 

 ent works of natural history, are exceedingly 

 by YarreU in his description of the species : « The difficulty of obtaining a perfect view 

 of this unwieldy fish, either when floating in water, or when, from ita great weight, it 

 lies partly imbedded in the soft soil of the sea-shore, has led to the differences which ap- 

 pear in the representations of it which have been published by different 



Greenland, Fabinius. Massachusetts, Storer 

 sey, Lesueur. 



New York, Mitchill, Dekay 



New Jer 



