196 The True Sharks 
Family Cetorhinide, or Basking Sharks.—The largest of all 
living sharks is the great basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus), 
constituting the family of Cetorhinide. This is the largest of 
all fishes, reaching a length of thirty-six feet and an enormous 
Fic. 188.—Carcharodon megalodon Charlesworth. Miocene. Family Lamnide 
(After Zittel.) 
weight. It is a dull and sluggish animal of the northern seas, 
almost as inert as a sawlog, often floating slowly southward in 
pairs in the spring and caught occasionally by whalers for its 
liver. When caught, its huge flabby head spreads out wide on 
the ground, its weight in connection with the great size of the 
mouth-cavity rendering it shapeless. Although so clumsy 
and without spirit, it is said that a blow with its tail will crush 
