96 NEW SOUTH WALES 
mouth, which is situated directly under the eye, is of a crescent shape, 
and the jaws are armed with four or five rows of teeth, formidable and 
sharp. 
“These sharks are caught in October, November, and part of December, 
for their oil alone. After the latter month the liver yields little or none. 
During these months they yield a considerable quantity, the quality of 
which is good, and excellent for burning in lamps. 
“These sharks used to be caught in Botany Bay, at regular ‘ nurse’ 
grounds, near to the Seven-mile Beach, and what is known as ‘ Doll’s 
Point,’ where they could be seen of a calm day during the months of 
October and November, lying on the bottom in regular rows like logs of 
timber, and each row apparently as if they had been selected of one 
length. During these months, and on these grounds, they were caught 
with line and hook. Singular to remark that this operation was at one 
time systematically carried out, and the oil obtained from the liver of 
these sharks was used at the Tower (a Government station situated on 
the inner head of the north side of Botany Bay) for years, as well as by 
the fishermen of the village of that bay. The fact is also very curious 
that when fishing for these ‘sharks you will, with a rare exception, 
catch them all of one length—no variation which can be detected by the 
eye ; and out of twenty-eight caught in 1857, at one fishing, there was 
not the slightest perceptible difference. Occasionally a very large one 
was caught, and which forms the exception. 
“Tn fishing for the grey-nurse, and when one of them takes the bait, 
the others rush towards it with a view either to participate in the food 
or to protect the one which has taken the hook, for they then overlie 
each other to that extent that it is like being fast to a rock ; a constant 
and heavy strain alone will move the one you are fast to. When the 
battle commences, it gives some sport and plenty of work before you can 
get it alongside to enable you to give it a blow on the head with a club, 
which is part of the equipment for that purpose. After the oil season 
these sharks are very vicious, and move about freely ; and when one is 
fishing for other fishes and happens to hook a ‘nurse’ on a good line, it 
will, with its great strength, drag the boat about, kellick and all, 
apparently without much exertion. 
“The ‘nurse’ has been known to seize hold of the steer oar of a 
whaleboat when the boat has been moving rapidly through the waiter, 
and shake it with its teeth two or three times, let go its hold, and pursue 
and seize it again as if it was a living object, or, as it were, in derision 
or sport. At other times it has been known to attack the boat as if it 
smelled the bait within, or hover about, putting in an appearance every 
now and then. It was supposed that sharks could smell the living 
freight on board the ships connected with the negro slave ships in days 
of old ; so with these, they have been known to seize hold of the stern- 
post and shake the boat till it quivered again.” 
Heterodontus or Cestracion has a peculiar interest attached to it, on 
account of its being of a form which prevailed in past geological times, 
or at least fishes very like it. The fossil forms exceed in size the species 
of our coast. They make their appearance in the Devonian period, 
increasing in the Carboniferous, and surviving up to the Chalk. The 
majority of the species however lived in the earlier secondary period. 
