654 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1088 



may be quoted. In his Natural History of the 

 Fishes of Iceland he says : 



This giant among sharks [and he quotes Gun- 

 ner that it grows to a length of 16 fathoms 

 (Klaftern), but adds for himself that its ordinary 

 length runs from 20-24 feet] is found only in 

 northern seas and, moreover, is here not abundant.^ 



Goode and Bean in their monograph, 

 "Ocean Ichthyology"- (1895) write: 



It is unknown elsewhere than in the north At- 

 lantic, and south of the Grand Banks on the west, 

 and Scotland on the east may be regarded as an 

 estray. ' ' 



Jordan and Evermann (1896)^ give it a more 

 extended habitat since it is "found in Arctic 

 waters, straying south to Portugal, Virginia 

 and California." And later Jordan (1905)* in 

 his " Guide to the Study of Fishes " notes that 

 it occurs " on all northern coasts (and is) 

 most frequently taken in the North Sea and 

 about Monterey Bay, California." However, 

 Bridge (1904)^ in the Cambridge Natural His- 

 tory vsTrites : 



Although generally described as a northern 

 form, Cetorhinus is known to occur in Australian 

 waters. 



As might be expected from the well-known 

 activity in ichthyological matters of the Aus- 

 tralians, our southern references are mainly 

 confined to the waters surrounding that conti- 

 nent. 



Its occurrence in the antipodes was, so far as 

 the present writer knows, first made known by 

 Sir Frederick McCoy^ in 1885. He figures and 

 describes a large specimen taken at Portland 



1 Faber, Friedrich, ' ' Naturgeschichte der Fische 

 Islands," p. 20. Frankfurt am Main, 1829. 



= Goode, George Brown, and Tarleton H. Bean, 

 "Ocean Ichthyology," p. 22. Washington, 1895. 



s Jordan, David Starr, and Barton W. Evermann, 

 "The Fishes of North and Middle America," Vol. 

 I., p. 51. Washington, 1896. 



4 Jordan, David Starr, ' ' A Guide to the Study 

 of Fishes," Vol. I., p. 540. New York, 1905. 



5 Bridge, T. W., ' ' Fishes ' ' in the Cambridge 

 Natural History, Vol. VII., p. 453. London, 1904. 



« McCoy, Frederick, ' ' Natural History of Vic- 

 toria. Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria," 

 Decade XI., pp. 11-15, Plate 104, 1885. 



on the west coast of Victoria in November, 

 1883. It was 30 feet 6 inches long and 20 feet 

 in girth. He gives a very careful and minute 

 description and very detailed measurements, 

 the first and with one exception the only ones 

 known to the present writer. 



William Macleay,' whose paper was appar- 

 ently published in the same year as McCoy's 

 but slightly later, merely lists the basking 

 shark in Australian waters on the authority of 

 the latter, and gives no new data. 



We next hear of Cetorhinus in 1901, when 

 two specimens were taken at Eden, New South 

 Wales, and were recorded by Mr. E. E. Waite 

 in the following year.* Of the first specimen 

 only a piece of " baleen " or gill-rakers reached 

 Mr. Waite, but this was sufficient for its iden- 

 tification. However, in August, 1901, a young 

 male lOJ feet long was taken at the same place 

 and sent to the Australian Museum, Sydney. 



A more extended account of the occurrence 

 of this great shark in these southern waters is 

 from the pen of Mr. J. A. Kershaw' of the 

 National Museum at Melbourne, Australia. 

 His specimen, which was a young male 12 

 feet and 11 inches long, was taken in Hob- 

 son's Bay near Williamstown, Victoria, in 

 May, 1903. Mr. Kershaw gives a series of 

 very full and carefully made measurements, 

 the only one except McCoy's that seem ever 

 to have been recorded. Its length lacked but 

 one inch of 13 feet and its girth in front of 

 the first dorsal was 3 feet 7 inches. Of Ker- 

 shaw's careful description the most noteworthy 

 point refers to the snout, which will be dis- 

 cussed later. 



Stevenson (1904)1° ggyg ^hat the basking 



'Macleay, William, "Supplement to Descriptive 

 Catalogue of the Fishes of Australia," Proceed- 

 ings Linnwan Society of New South Wales, Vol. 

 IX., pp. 62-63. 



8 Waite, E. R., ' ' New Records or Recurrences of 

 Rare Fishes from Eastern Australia," Records 

 Australian Museum, Vol. IV., p. 263, 1902. 



9 Kershaw, James A., ' ' Notes on a Rare Victo- 

 rian Shark, ' ' The Victorian Naturalist, Vol. XIX., 

 p. 62, 1903. 



10 Stevenson, Charles H., "Aquatic Products in 

 Arts and Industries," Report U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion, Vol. XXVIII. for 1902, pp. 22T-228, 1904. 



