TION. 



Class IV. WHITE SHARK. 141 



in Doctor Percy's Reliques of ancient English 

 Poetry.* 



The mouth of this fish is furnished with Dkscrip, 

 (sometimes) a sixfold row of teeth, flat, trian- 

 gular, exceedingly sharp at their edges, and finely 

 serrated. We have one that is rather more 

 than an inch and a half long. Grew\ says, that 

 those in the jaws of a shark two yards in 

 length, are not half an inch, so that the fish to 

 which mine belonged must have been six yards 

 long, provided the teeth and body keep pace in 

 their growth. J This dreadful apparatus, when 

 the fish is in a state of repose, lies quite flat in 

 the mouth, but when he seizes his prey, he has 

 the power of erecting the teeth, by the help of a 

 set of muscles that join them to the jaw. The 

 mouth is placed far beneath, for which reason 

 these, as well as the rest of the kind, are said to 

 be obliged to turn on their backs to seize their 

 prey, which is an observation as antient as the 

 days of Pliny. § The eyes are large : the back 

 broad, flat, and shorter than that of other sharks j 

 the tail is of a semilunar form, but the upper 

 part is longer than the lower. It has vast 



* Vol. I. 331. f Rarities, 91. 



X Fossil teeth of this fish are very frequent in Malta, some of 

 which are four inches long. 



§ Omnia autem carnivora sunt talia et supina vescantur, L%b. 

 IX. c. 24. 



