4416 THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1875. 
microscopic inspection to a scientific friend, of great experience, 
but nothing could be detected or distinguished: on my suggesting 
that it might possibly be sea-weed, he said that the glutinous 
matter was not unlike decomposed seaweed. So the basking shark, 
like the lobster, crab and many other Crustacea, may feed on 
the Iridea edulis or other species of Fuci—Fucus vesiculosus and 
Laminaria digitata, for instance. The matter contained in the 
sporules of the genus Fucus is of a glutinous nature, somewhat 
resembling the substance in question. If feeding on herrings, it is 
not to be wondered at that these stray fish are generally found with 
empty stomachs, as sharks must necessarily, from their peculiar 
manner of feeding, endure long fasts; for what fish could they 
capture, except in a shoal, or found napping, seeing that they 
have to turn well nigh on the back to enable them to seize their 
prey? The blue shark will swallow almost anything that comes in 
its way, and I have seen newspapers, among other strange things, 
taken from its maw; but though so voracious it is not so savage 
as the common ground shark of the southern coast of India, one 
of these having bitten off at the thigh the leg of a young officer, 
a fellow passenger of mine, while bathing in the Madras roads. 
Though captured at the early hour named, this fish did not die 
ull late in the day, the eye having been observed in motion; but 
all sharks are tenacious of life and die hard; for instance, one 
captured and hauled on the deck of an Indiaman showed symptoms 
of vitality long after the head had been severed from the body, 
and a sailor who had incautiously handled it had his fingers trans- 
fixed, the teeth penetrating the nails, inflicting a severe wound. 
Unlike other species of the family, the basking shark—like the 
ray, skate and thornback—has two bony and muscular appendages 
between the ventral fins; they are four feet in length, slightly 
incurved and of the size of a man’s thigh at the base, but gradually 
decreasing and tapering towards the extremity, where there is, on 
the inner surface, a longitudinal cup-like cavity. These claspers 
are of a brownish black externally, and of a pinkish flesh-colour—in- 
terually and externally too—at the extremities, but there is nothing 
red about them, as in Couch’s figure, nor are they larger at the 
extremities than at the base, as represented, but the reverse. There 
has been some discussion as to the use of these claspers, and it is 
somewhat strange that this shark should be the only one of the 
tribe that has these appendages, unless these arm-like appendages 
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