SOME GIANT FISHES OF THE SEAS 



641 



easy to approach and harpoon it. It is 

 only when attacked that the fish is dan- 

 gerous, and then only by demolishing or 

 overturning boats in its struggles. 



The expanse of body in this species is 

 greater than in any other known animal. 

 Examples 16 feet wide are common, and 

 those 20 feet across and over 4 feet thick 

 are not rare. The maximum width is 

 stated by authors to be 25 or 30 feet. 

 One specimen, of which the writer had a 

 photograph, caught in Lapaz Bay, Mex- 

 ico, many years ago by the crew of the 

 U. S. S. Narragansett, of which George 

 Dewey was captain, was 17 feet wide and 



those who reside in or visit the South 

 Atlantic and Gulf seaboards, and the 

 '"saws" are familiar objects in curio 

 stores all over the country. This fish has 

 a broad, depressed body, and its greatest 

 length exceeds 20 feet. The largest ex- 

 amples have saws 6 feet long and a foot 

 wide at the base, with teeth several inches 

 long. The saw-fish is without economic 

 value and is never sought, but it has the 

 faculty of getting entangled in the fisher- 

 men's nets and badly damaging them in 

 its struggles to escape, so that the fisher- 

 men regard it as a nuisance and have to 

 handle it with care in order to avoid the 



SAW-FISH OF THE SOUTHERN LAGOONS 



weighed nearly two tons. A fish of the 

 largest size mentioned would weigh not 

 less than six tons. 



THE SAW-FISH 



In the lagoons, sounds, and bayous of 

 the West Indies and our southern coast 

 there exists an abundant fish of great 

 length, intermediate in structure between 

 the sharks and the rays, and at once 

 recognizable by the elongation of its 

 snout into a wide, flat blade, in the edges 

 of which are large, sharp teeth fitting in 

 sockets and directed horizontally. The 

 teeth are in 25 to 30 pairs, separated by 

 wide intervals, and give to the saw-fish 

 its name. The species is well known to 



serious injury that might be inflicted by 

 a lateral sweep of a big fish's saw. 



MAN-EATING SHARKS 40 FEET LONG 



When giant fishes are mentioned most 

 people will at once think of the sharks, 

 among which, indeed, are found the 

 largest fishes now existing. Of the many 

 species of sharks noteworthy on account 

 of their size there are about half a dozen 

 which are preeminent. These differ 

 much in their disposition, some being as 

 harmless as doves and others the incar- 

 nation of ferocity. 



The sleeper shark (Somniosus inicro- 

 cephalus), whose scientific name fits it so 

 admirably, appears to have developed its 



