Report of Meetings for 1880. By Dr. J. Hardy. 409 



on the exposed open country they Lad traversed, that 

 the top branches of every one were injured. On the approach 

 from this side, there was forgotten to be mentioned at the 

 meeting, although Mr Howey-Taylor had apprised me of it, that 

 at the side of the public road at Swinhoe Heugh, on widening 

 the road a short time ago, the workmen came across the remains 

 of three human beings buried some three feet below the surface, 

 with feet to the west, according to Christian practice. 



After partaking of the profuse hospitality, the compa^' were 

 invited to view the numerous objects of interest surrounding 

 them, in Pictures, Books, Old Furniture, Minerals, and other 

 Natural History Specimens, etc. Mr Howey-Taylor has taken 

 great interest in the fishing population of the coast, in the better 

 construction of their fishing boats, which at present are continually 

 liable to be swamped on the unforseen outburst of a storm. 

 With this object he advertised for plans and suggestions, the 

 result being that he had had a large number of letters from all 

 parts of the country, with suggestions and plans for the accom- 

 plishment of this object. He demonstrated to the members* 

 by means of a model of a fishing boat, the most acceptable idea 

 by which air-tight compartments can be fitted into the bottom 

 of an ordinary boat, and suggested the employment of sand as 

 ballast, in place of the big stones ordinarily emplo} T ed. He then 

 showed photographs of a Porbeagle Shark captured on 29th Aug. 

 off the coast by a boat's crew belonging to the place. An extract 

 from the Berwick Advertiser Sep. 6, 1889, relates the circumstances. 



" Capture of a Shark. — On Thursday last week, the brothers Handysides 

 and Douglas, while working their groat lines on the bank which lies just 

 south of the Fame Islands, found that something unusually heavy was 

 attached to the line. It proved to be a shark, and the line was tightly 

 hitched round the monster's tail. The crew succeeded in hauling the 

 shark into the coble, and subsequently in landing it. It measured 9 feet 

 from snout to end of tail, with a girth of 4 feet 3 inches. On opening the 

 stomach, it proved that the shark had lately dined, and that his dinner 

 had consisted of cuttle fish. The fish is locally known as the ' Blue 

 Shark,' and is credited with being inoffensive. The fishermen pronounced 

 it to be a male fish, and estimated his weight at IS to 25 stones." 



It could readily be determined from the photo to be a Por- 

 beagle Shark (Squalu* Coraubicw Gmelin, Lamna Cornubiea, 

 Fleming.) Dr. Embleton had already recorded this shark from 

 this coast. (Tate's Hist, of Alnwick, it., p. 438.) Not long ago 

 I examined a large example that had been entangled in a salmon 

 net off Redheugh, Berwickshire. 



