1915] Gudger: The Whale Shark;. 351 



capture and exhibited pictures of this shark at a meeting of 

 the Biological Society of Washington. An abstract of his re- 

 marks appeared in a report of the meeting in Science for Au- 

 gust 29. 



In the Bulletin of the New York Zoological Society, for 

 November, 1913, Doctor C. H. Townsend wrote very interest- 

 ingly of this Whale Shark, and gave two figures, one of the 

 mounted specimen and one of the fish taken shortly after its 

 capture. The latter, showing a man crouching in the mouth 

 cavity, gives an idea of its enormous size. It is reproduced here- 

 in as Figure 119. 



Early in May, 1913, I was definitely informed of what had 

 reached me through rumor previously, namely, that Captain 

 Thompson had left Miami to exhibit his shark in the towns along 

 the East Coast of Florida. On my reaching Tortugas toward 

 the close of the month, our Miami men reported that he was 

 understood to have the Rhineodon on exhibition in Atlantic City, 

 and this was confirmed when I stopped in Miami, on July 29. 



This was a great disappointment to me, for I had hoped to 

 see and make careful descriptions and measurements of the 

 mounted fish, and to get from Captain Thompson a full account 

 of the capture of this rare animal. 



However, I ascertained that, at the time of the capture of 

 this shark. Captain Thompson's boat was chartered by Mr. 

 Charles T. Brooks, of Cleveland, Ohio. After some difficulty, I 

 succeeded in getting in communication with Mr. Brooks, and 

 am indebteded to him for the following excellent and invaluable 

 account of the capture. Mr. Brooks has put the matter so well 

 that I cannot do better than quote him verbatim : 



"I had engaged Captain Charles Thompson, of Miami, and 

 his boat 'Samoa,' with Bob Denny as assistant, to go south along 

 the coast from Miami for tarpon in the latter part of May, 1912. 

 This was after the season had closed at Miami. There were just 

 the three of us on this expedition. We finally anchored just 

 below Knight's Key, about one-half mile inside from the old 

 Florida East Coast dock. One morning the Captain saw the 

 tail of a large shark, as he supposed, within a few feet of the 

 viaduct. He asked me if I would like to see a shark harpooned, 

 and I said that I would. He then began to be impressed with 



