SOME GIANT FISHES OF THE SEAS 



043 



four animals extant. Provided 

 with small teeth, it feeds on fishes 

 and floating crustaceans, and is 

 not of a ferocious disposition. It 

 is dangerous only by virtue of its 

 great bulk, and when attacked its 

 powerful tail easily demolishes 

 boats. In former years the bask- 

 ing shark was hunted for its oil 

 on the coasts of Norway and Ire- 

 land ; it was also harpooned on the 

 shore of Massachusetts in the 

 early part of the last century, and 

 as many as 12 barrels of oil were 

 sometimes obtained from the liver 

 of one shark. There are many 

 records of basking sharks 25 to 38 

 feet long from the coast of New 

 York, Massachusetts, and Maine, 

 but the species has not been com- 

 mon in our waters in recent years. 

 The largest of all fishes, the 

 largest of all cold-blooded animals, 

 and the largest of all existing ani- 

 mals, with the exception of a few 

 species of whales, is the whale 

 shark (Rhineodon typicus), origi- 

 nally described from Cape of 

 Good Hope, but now known from 

 India, Japan, South America, Pan- 

 ama, California, and various other 

 places, a small specimen having 

 been obtained on the Florida coast 

 a few years ago. This shark has 

 a very broad and obtuse snout and 

 an exceedingly wide mouth armed 

 with numerous minute teeth ; the 

 dark - colored body is marked 

 with many small whitish spots, 

 species is stated to attain a length of 70 

 feet and is known to exceed 50 feet. 

 Notwithstanding its immense size, how- 

 ever, it is harmless to man unless at- 

 tacked, and feeds on the small creatures 

 for which its teeth are adapted. Its huge 

 bulk makes it dangerous in the same way 

 that a whale is dangerous. Years ago 

 it was reported that the sperm-whale 

 fishermen at the island of Saint Denis, 

 in the Indian Ocean, dreaded to harpoon 

 a whale shark by mistake, and stories are 

 told of how a harpooned fish, "having by 

 a lightning-like dive exhausted the supply 



PLUNGE OF A HARPOONED WHALE SHARK 



The 



of rope which had been accidentally fast- 

 ened to the boat, dived deeper still, and 

 so pulled a pirogue and crew to the 

 bottom." 



RIBBON-FISHES 



The ribbon-fishes constitute a group 

 chiefly noteworthy for their shape and 

 the circumstances under which they have 

 been met with, although some of them 

 are among the most elongate of fishes. 

 Imagine a creature one foot high, three 

 or four inches thick, and more than 20 

 feet long, with the consistency of a wet 

 towel, and you will have some idea of a 



