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The Greenland Shark (Laemargus borealis, Miill, and Henle), 

 and its parasite (Lernsea (Lerneopoda) elongata, Grant.) 

 By Mr Andrew Brotherston, Kelso. 



A young female of this Shark was captured on March 21st, 

 1877, by the crew of a fishing boat, when engaged in the white 

 fishing, about two miles off Berwick. It appears to be rare in 

 the British seas, as very few examples have been recorded. The 

 Arctic ocean is the home of this species, where, according to 

 Oapt. Scoresby, it is one of the foes of the "Whale. " It bites it 

 and annoys it while living, and feeds on it when dead. It scoops 

 hemispherical pieces out of its body, nearly as big as a person's 

 head; and continues scooping and gorging lump after lump, 

 until the whole cavity of its belly is filled. It is so insensible of 

 pain, that though it has been run through the body with a knife 

 and escaped, yet, after a while, I have seen it return to banquet 

 again on the Whale, at the very spot where it received its 

 wounds. The heart is very small ; it performs six or eight 

 pulsations in a minute, and continues beating for some hours 

 after being taken out of the body. The body also, though 

 separated into any number of parts, gives evidence of life for a 

 similar length of time. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to 

 kill, and it is actually unsafe to trust the hand in its mouth, 

 though the head be separated from the body. Whale-fishers 

 frequently slip into the water where these Sharks abound, yet 

 there has been no instance, that I have heard of, of their ever 

 having been attacked by the Shark." — (Scoresby' s Arctic Regions.) 

 Descr. This specimen was 6| feet in length (when fnll grown it is 12 to 14 

 feet, sometimes more) and three feet in girth at the thickest part, which is 

 close to the pectoral fins ; there it is fourteen inches deep tapering to three 

 inches near the tail. When fresh the colour was a slaty-grey both above and 

 below, with a few small, round, whitish spots, of various sizes, scattered over 

 the sides, most of them near the lateral line. These spots appear to be 

 characteristic of the young of several species of Shark, disappearing when 

 they come to maturity. The colour seems to vary, possibly owing to age, 

 sex, or season when examined. Dr Fleming says "grey;" Capt. Scoresby 

 ' ' cinereous grey.' ' M. Valenciennes when describing the example found 

 stranded at the mouth of the Seine in 1832, gives the colour dark brown on 

 the back, grey on the belly ; and Mr Hutchinson in his description of the ex- 

 ample taken on the coast of Durham, in April, 1840, says " the colour of the 

 fish when fresh was brown, deeply shaded with blue ; the blue soon faded 

 and it became dark brown; when quite dry it was cinereous brown." 



