204 THE ANGEL-FISH. 



been captured at one haul of a seine net, tlie destruction wliicli it causes can be readily 

 imagined. Sometimes this fisli assembles in large shoals, and then the fishermen avenge 

 themselves of their injuries, by shooting their nets around them, and capturing them by 

 boats' loads at a time. Their flesh is tolerably good, a useful oil is obtained plentifully from 

 the liver, while the refuse portions are most valuable as manure, and are strewed in unfragrant 

 richness over the fields, warning the nostrils at a considerable distance that the next yeai""s 

 crop is likely to be successful, and that a nearer approach is undesirable except to the farmer 

 and the entomologist. 



The color of the Picked Dog-fish is slaty -gi-ay ibove, diversified, when young, with a few 

 w^hite spots, and the under parts are yellowish-white. The skin is rough if stroked from the 

 tail to the head, and smooth when rubbed in the reverse direction. The average length of 

 this species is about eighteen inches. It is illustrated, together with the Smooth Hound, on 

 page 200. 



The Greenland, or Northern Shark {Daldtlas boredlis)., must receive a brief notice, 

 as it is frequently mentioned in accounts of whaling voyages. 



This species is remarkable for the very small jiroportionate size of tlie fins, and for the 

 manner in which the points of the teeth diverge from the centre of the jaw. It is a great foe 

 to the whale and whalers, and is so heedless of danger when intent on satisfying its hunger, 

 that it will follow a dead whale to the ship, mix boldly with the men who are engaged in cut- 

 ting the blubber, thrust its head boldly among them, and at every bite scoop out lumps as 

 large as a man's head. 



So deeply engaged is the creature in this interesting occupation, that even if a man should 

 sliij into the water from the smooth oily skin of the whale, the Greenland Sharks take no 

 notice of him, but continue their depredations on the whale. Even after the long whaling 

 knife has been thrust through its body, it will dart off for the moment on feeling the wound, 

 but will soon return to the same spot and continue its banquet. It also feeds on crustaceans 

 and small fishes. Many specimens are nearly if n( t wholly blinded by a parasitic animal tech- 

 nically called Lernoea elongata, some three inches in length, which fastens upon the corner 

 of the eye, and lives upon its fluids. 



The color of this species is brown with a shade of deep blue. Its length, when full-grown, 

 is about fourteen feet. 



Another curious species of Shark, called appropriately the Spinous Shark {Echino- 

 rldmis spinosus), is notable for the spine-topped bony tubercles which are scattered over the 

 surface of the body. The greater number of these spinous i:)rojections are boldly hooked, in a 

 manner not unlike the thorns of the common bramble, and the iDoints are dii'ected backwards; 

 others, however, ai-e quite straight and stand upright. The object of these curious spines is 

 not clearly known. They are very small in i:)roportion to the size of the fish, and it is said 

 that the males are more thickly studded with them than the females. 



The color is dark leaden gray on the head and back as far as the first dorsal fin, the 

 remainder being reddish -yellow Avith mottlings and cloudings of purple and brown. On the 

 abdomen are irregular spots of vermilion. The chin and sides of the mouth are white. 

 The average length of a full-grown specimen seems to be about seven or eight feet. In most, 

 if not in all, of these creatures, the female is larger than the male, as is the case with the 

 birds of prey. 



The dark-skinned, wide-mouthed, leather-finned, and thorn-backed fish which is shown 

 in the illusti'ation, is popularly known throughout many parts of Europe by the name of the 

 Angel-fish, a term singularly inappropiiate except on the well-known })iinciple "lucus a non 

 lucendo," or perchance as leaving the spectator the option of choosing the kind of angel which 

 the creature is thought to resemble. 



Sooth to say, it is as hideous a fish as is to be found in the waters, and from all accounts 

 is as unprepossessing to the inhabitants of the sea as to those of the land, being voracious to a 

 degree, and attaining a size that causes it to be a most formidable foe to the many fishes on 



