304 Canadian Record of Science. 



erable quantity of oil, and the skin is used as a rasp for 

 dressing wood. I examined and measured one specimen 

 about ten feet in length, and secured, with the aid of Mr. 

 Sim, of Lighthouse Point, the skin of another, which is now 

 admirably mounted by Bailly in the Peter Eedpath 

 Museum. I also obtained the jaws and teeth of a third spe- 

 cimen, now in the same museum. 



The creature is known to the fishermen at Little Metis 

 as the '• Dog Fish," a name not altogether inappropriate, 

 since it belongs to the same family of sharks with the 

 ordinary dog-fish, though much larger than they, and desti- 

 tute of the bony spines with which they are armed. It 

 seems to haunt the bottom rather than the surface of the 

 sea, and to feed on all sorts of smaller fish and crustaceans. 

 It is apparently sluggish, though muscular and powerful, 

 and is said, when hooked, to make little resistance. 



It belongs to a species or group of closely-allied species 

 haunting all the northern seas, and known by a great 

 variety of names, Gunther appears to think that the fishes 

 designated by all the following names belong to one widely 

 distributed species, to which he assigns the name 



Laemargus borealis, 

 With the following synonyms : — 



Squalus carcharias, Linnseus, Muller and Otho Fabricius. 



Squalus microcephalus, Bl. Sehn. 



Somniosus brevipinna, Leseur.and Storer, Fishes of Massa- 

 chusetts. 



Scymnas brevipinna, Dekay, Fishes of New York. 



Squalus borealis, Scoresby. 



Scymnus borealis, Fleming. 



Laemargus borealis, Muller and Henle. 



Somniosus microcephalus, Goode, Fish Commission, United 

 States. 

 In England it is usually known as the Greenland Shark, 



and on the American coast bears the names ,£ Nurse," 



" Sleeper," " Ground Shark," and " Dog Fish." 



