2 26 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE SHARK FISHERY FOR THE OIL OBTAINED. 



Fishery in Norway — The Greenland shark — Mode of capture — The basking 

 shark — Sharks in Australia and New Zealand — Shark fishery in India — 

 Sharks' fins exported to China for food. 



The Shark Fishery of Norway. — There are four species 

 of the shark tribe which inhabit the northern latitudes, 

 viz., the Scymnus borealis or Squalus glacialis, Selache 

 ■maxhniis, Squalus acanthias, and Squalus spinax niger. 



The Greenland shark {Scymnus borealis) frequents in 

 numbers the banks which are traced in a line nearly the 

 whole length of the western coast, at distances varying from 

 50 to 100 miles from the main ; in greater abundance, how- 

 ever, on that portion which lines the coast of Nordland and 

 Finmark, as far as the North Cape, and between the latter 

 and Cherry or Bear Island. They are to be met with, how- 

 ever, all over the North Sea and Arctic Ocean, as well as in 

 most of the large fiords on the west coast, at depths vary- 

 ing from 100 to 200 fathoms. 



Formerly the fishery was exclusively confined to the 

 immediate vicinity of the coast ; but of late it has been 

 more specially and lucratively pi'osecuted on the banks, 

 commencing in about lat. 68° to the North Cape, and 

 between that and Cherry Island. The vessels employed in 



