92° NEW SOUTH WALES 
CHAPTER IV. 
Sharks. 
THESE unamiable predacious fishes are very well or rather very nume-- 
rously represented in Australia, as the list to be given will show. They 
are not, however, wholly useless. It has been mentioned already how’ 
abundant some species are in Tasmania, where the fishermen find their. 
captures of king-fish much interfered with by sharks, which snap’ 
them off the hooks, This is probably the Tope or School Shark (Galeus 
australis), Macleay. It was generally thought that it was identical 
with the Tope of Britain (@. canis), but Mr. Macleay has pointed out: 
many differences. It grows to about 6 feet long, and has become an article 
of export from Tasmania. It is regularly captured at Southport and 
Recherche Bay. Ata visit paid by the writer to that locality he found 
about ten families engaged principally in the shark fishery. The por- 
tions used were the liver, which was boiled for oil,* and the fins, which 
were dried and pressed for the Chinese market. There were two very 
intelligent Chinese agents, who bought the fins on the spot and under- 
took the water transport to the place of shipment. They gave much 
information about the trade, which just then happened to be in a 
depressed state. The tail fin was not used, and of the others the dorsal 
fins were the most esteemed, and were packed separately. The fisher- 
men found it: sufficiently remunerative to engage in no other fishery, 
except when the market was very low, as it was then. There was much 
sickness in the place about that time because of the way in which the 
. decaying carcasses of the fish were left about. I counted over sixty near 
one dwelling, and the stench was fearful. There were times when the 
weather was unfavourable for the fishery, and then mutton-fish were 
speared. This is the ear shell-fish (Haliotis naevosa), which was eagerly 
bought by the Chinese merchants. Only the large muscular sucking 
disc or foot is used. Before being packed it is boiled and dried. About 
9d. per Ib. was given, but though abundant it was too troublesome a 
fishery to make it a pursuit, except when nothing else could be caught. t°' 
It is very probable that the majority of our sharks have a very wide 
range, so that there is nothing of peculiar or local interest about them. 
The following list includes all that are known to occur in our seas :— 
Carcharias gangeticus, or sea shark, and Carcharias melanopterus 
and C. brachyurus; the Whaler, Galeocerdo rayneri ; Tiger Shark, 
Galeus australis; School Shark; Zygena malleus, Hammer-headed 
Shark ; Mustelus antarticulus; Lamna glauca, Blue Pointer; Car- 
charodon rondelettii, White Pointer; Odontapsis americanus, Grey 
Nurse; Alopecius vulpes, Thrasher ; Votidanus indicus, Scylliwm macu- 
latum, S. laticeps, Parascylliwm variolatum, P. nuchale, P. ocellatum, 
Chiloscyllium furvum, Dog-fish; C. ocellatum, C. trispeculare, C. 
_,” Fish oii absorbs oxygen so rapidly, and thickens to an extent which precludes. 
its application to machinery. 
+ The flesh of sharks contains the most nutriment of any fish, but is hard, dry, 
and tasteless. From this reason it is perhaps less digestible. It is said that the 
Chinese use it as food, but this is true only of the fins. 
