140 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [vou. 48 
is towed on shore; several boats are requisite for towing. The mhor is often 
40, sometimes 60 feet in length; the mouth is occasionally 4 feet wide.” 
The fins of the sharks are exported from Bombay to China. 
The specimen on the Cape fortunately fell into the hands of Dr. 
Andrew Smith, Surgeon to the Forces, then resident at Cape Town, 
who records that “the specimen described was 
the only one that had been seen at the Cape 
within the memory of any of the fishermen. At 
the time is was discovered it was swimming leis- 
urely near the surface of the water, with a cer- 
tain portion of the back above it. When ap- 
proached it manifested no great degree of fear 
and it was not before a harpoon was lodged in 
its body that it altered its course and quickened 
its pace.” 
Dr. Smith first described the animal in the 
Zoblogical Journal in 1829, where he gave what 
I believe to be the first notice and description of 
this interesting species. The title of his article 
is “Contributions to the Natural History of 
Fic, 17.—Harpoon South Africa, etc.,” and contains in addition to 
used in capture of //inodon, misspelled Rhincodon, descriptions of 
Shark at Kurrachee. new species of mammals and reptiles. I quote 
verbatim the original description: 
“Fam. SQUALID. Genus Ruincopon Mihi. 
“Dentes graciles breves leniter curvati, ordinibus longitudinalibus ita dis- 
positi ut lineae in anteriore maxillae, nec non et mandibulae parte jacentis, 
speciem habeant; caput latum, depressum, quadrangulare, os ad apicem capitis 
cui latitudine feré par est; latera liris longitudinalibus et carina perquam 
distincta in utroque caudae latere; spiraculum a tergo utriusque oculi; pinna 
analis alteri pinnae dorsalis pene opposita. 
“Rhincodon typus, mihi. 
“Supra viridi-griseus maculis et lineis albis numerosis; subtus rubroalbus 
ad rubrum transiens; dorso ante anteriorem suam pinnam carinato, post ro- 
tundato, deinde plano. 
“Colour of back and sides greenish gray, with numerous white spots, vary- 
ing in size from that of a sixpence to a halfpenny; also several white lines 
on the sides of the head, body and about the branchiae; below reddish white, 
passing into vermillion red, anterior part of back carinated, posterior rounded 
or flat. Length of the specimen from which the description was taken, fifteen 
feet; greatest circumference, nine feet. Was caught by fishermen in Table 
Bay, during the month of April, 1828, and the skin was purchased for £6 
sterling, and forwarded to the Paris Museum.” 
There followed considerable confusion in the name of Dr. Smith’s 
new genus. He evidently first intended to use the name Rhineodon 
