NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 349 



Common Shark {Carcharias vulgaris), found in abun- 

 dance, and the young sold as food. 



September 2"]th, 1849. — A coloured man called at the 

 house to-day with the backbone of a large shark for sale. 

 He stated that it was killed " away in the deeps," from a 

 small row boat, a few days since, not with hook and line, 

 but by running a noose over the tail, and towing the 

 animal to the shore, when it was discovered to have 

 " drowned itself." My informant assured me it measured 

 nine feet in length, and that he had sold the jaws, contain- 

 ing six rows of teeth, to an officer at the Dockyard. Judg- 

 ing from the vertebra I saw, I do not think the length 

 exaggerated. 



Mackerel Porbeagle (Lamn'a punctata), of De Kay's 

 " New York Fauna." 



March igth, 1850. — A Shark was brought alongside the 

 wharf this morning, of a description unknown to the fisher- 

 men and other persons collected to see it. It measured, 

 from the nose to the extreme end of the tail upwards of 

 seven feet in length, the pectoral fins were eighteen 

 inches long, and the teeth in three rows — those in front 

 being long and pointed, more or less curved inwards, 

 and standing apart from each other. In De Kay's 

 '' New York Fauna," this Shark is correctly figured, and 

 described as Lamna punctata — the Mackerel Porbeagle, 

 of America, commonly known by the popular name of 

 Mackerel Shark. It was taken with a hook and line in 

 the south-west spit, by a common fishing boat. Its car- 

 case was immediately sliced up and sold in pieces as food 

 to the native inhabitants of the Metropolis of the Ber- 

 mudas. 



