624 
in with a school of sixty-feet sperm whales. 
His words are: 
Before the last of them was out of sight, an 
enormous shark passed so close to us that we had 
a full view of it. Like the whales, which it ap- 
peared to be following, it swam slowly, passing the 
Swan at a distance of 80 yards. I can therefore 
testify that its length was at least 40 feet; and in 
bulk it seemed to be nearly equal to some of the 
whales. From the circumstances of its great size 
there can be no doubt that this was a specimen of 
Rhinodon typicus, or the great Pacific basking 
shark. 
Another even more indefinite reference de- 
serves brief mention only here. George Ben- 
nett, in 1831 saw two large sharks which he 
described as follows :8 0 
On the 18th of March, 1831, during my former 
voyage, in latitude 44° 55’ north, and long. 25° 10’ 
west; in the evening, two sharks of a very large 
size were seen at a short distance from the ship. 
A high dorsal fin, projecting from the water, was 
at first only discernible, and had a resemblance to 
a rock. It was at first stationary, but soon be- 
gan to move steadily along, and then occasionally 
the tail could be seen partially above the water. 
I know not to what species to refer it; one of the 
erew on board, who had been in a whaler, said 
that it was what they named a ‘‘bone shark,’’ 
which is seen in numbers alongside the ships when 
they are cutting up a whale. He said, also, that 
he had seen them as large as a twenty-barrel 
whale; that ‘‘the mouth resembled the gills of a 
fish, and they are spotted over the back.’’ 
Whether the latter part of this account accorded 
with the actual appearance of the fish, I was not 
sufficiently near to ascertain, but it appeared cor- 
rect with respect to its large size.8 
This fish was seen in the North Atlantic 
near the Azores, but it is not clear that it 
was Rhineodon. However, the account seems 
of sufficient interest to warrant its inclusion 
here. If this fish was the whale shark, then 
we must note three occurrences in the At- 
lantic, this being the first. 
One of the common haunts of this greatest 
of fishes is around the island of Ceylon, but it 
is not unknown in the Bay of Bengal, where it 
8 Bennett, George, ‘‘ Wanderings in New South 
Wales, Batavia, Pedir Coast, Singapore and 
China,’’ London, 1834, Vol. II., p. 267. 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Von. XLVIII. No. 1251 
has been recorded by Lloyd® in 1908. How- 
ever, this is not its first record for these 
waters, for in the year 1835 one W. Foley? 
had given the following vivid account of his 
experiences. We will let him tell his story 
in his own words. 
On my voyage to Madras (in May last), I saw a 
most extraordinary fish, and one whieh had never 
before been seen by any seaman on board, al- 
though some of the officers and crew had been em- 
ployed in the whale fishery. It was of the size of 
a whale but differing from that animal in shape; 
spotted like a leopard in very beautiful manner; 
it came close under the stern of the ship, during a 
calm, and we had a magnificent opportunity for 
viewing it; it had a very large dorsal fin, which it 
moved about with great rapidity when made angry 
in consequence of the large stones which we threw 
down upon it rashly, for it possessed sufficient 
strength to have broken the rudder and stove in 
the stern of the ship. Several large fish (seem- 
ingly Dog-fish), about a cubit in length and up- 
wards, were gambolling about the monster, enter- 
ing its mouth at pleasure and returning to the 
water again. The following will give you some 
idea of its shape. The mouth very large, dorsal 
fin black or dark brown, tail also; body covered 
with brown spots like a leopard, head lizard-shape. 
This description leaves no doubt that this 
was a Rhineodon, and to one acquainted with 
their habits it is equally plain that the “ dog- 
fish ” were remoras or echeneises. Chierchia 
(1884) found several remoras in the mouth of 
his specimen taken in the Bay of Panama. 
Others have noted the same fact. Foley’s mis- 
take is, however, perfectly excusable. Numer- 
ous other writers on sharks and remoras haye 
mistaken these later for young sharks. The 
present writer was inclined to scoff at such 
errors, until in the clear waters around Key 
West, he made a similar mistake in the sum- 
mer of 1918. 
9Lloyd, R. E., ‘‘The Occurrence of Rhinodon 
typicus at the Head of the Bay of Bengal,’’ Rec- 
ords Indian Museum, 1908, Vol. II., p. 306. 
10 Foley, W., ‘‘An Unusual Sea Monster in the 
Bay [of Bengal],’’ Journal Asiatic Society of 
Bengal, 1835, Vol. 4, pp. 62-63. 
11 Chierchia, G., ‘‘The Voyage of the Vettor 
Pisani,’’ Nature, 1884, Vol. 30, p. 365. 
