362 Zoological N. Y. Zoological Society. [1;19 



from our anchorage. In a short time several boats with natives 

 went to sea, accompanied by two of the Vettor Pisani's boats. 



"Having wounded one of these animals in the lateral part of 

 the belly, we held him with lines fixed to the spears; he then 

 began to describe a very narrow curve, and irritated by the 

 cries of the people that were in the boat ran off with moderate 

 velocity. To the first boat which held the lines just mentioned 

 other boats were fastened, and it was a rather strange emotion 

 to feel ourselves towed by the monster for more than three hours 

 with a velocity that proved to be two miles per hour. One of 

 the boats was filled with water. At last the animal was tired 

 by the great loss of blood and the boats assembled to pull in 

 the line and tow the shark on shore. 



"With much difficulty the nine boats towed the animal along- 

 side the Vettor Pisani to have him hoisted on board, but it was 

 impossible on account of his colossal dimensions, but, as it was 

 high water, we went to a sand beach with the animal and we 

 had him safely stranded at night. 



"With much care were inspected the mouth, the nostrils, the 

 ears and all the body, but no parasite was found. The eyes 

 were taken out and prepared for histological study. The set 

 of teeth was all covered by a membrane that surrounded inter- 

 nally the lips ; the teeth are very little and almost in a rudimental 

 state. The mouth, instead of opening in the inferior part of 

 the head as in common sharks, was at the extremity of the head ; 

 the jaws having the same bend. 



"Cutting the animal on one side of the backbone, we met (1) 

 a compact layer of white fat 20 centimeters deep; (2) the car- 

 tilaginous ribs covered with blood vessels; (3) a stratum of 

 flabby, stringy, white muscle, 60 centimeters high, apparently 

 in adipose degeneracy; (4) the stomach. 



"By each side of the backbone he had three chamferings or 

 flutings, that were distinguished by inflected interstices. The 

 color of the back was brown with yellow spots that became close 

 and small toward the head, so as to be like marble spots. The 

 length of the shark was 8.90m. from the mouth to the pinna 

 caudalis extremity, the greatest circumference 6.50m., and 

 2.50m. the main diameter (the outline of the two projections is 

 made for giving other dimensions). 



