210 The Spinous Shark. [OHAP. XI. 
ing one of the Icelanders which I had seen from the top of 
the cliff. This, however, proved a very difficult matter; 
and when I had loaded the gun, I found, to my disappoint- 
ment, that I could not bring it to bear upon the object. I 
made the attempt several times, but was at last obliged to 
abandon the hope I had entertained of obtaining either of 
the birds. 
“T was vexed at this, for both came several times within 
easy shot. All my hopes of procuring the birds being at an 
end, I then proceeded to view the object in the water round 
which the birds were hovering, and I was surprised to find 
it to be the carcass of an animal of a very singular appear- 
ance. It was not until I had looked at it for some time 
that I could bring my memory to bear upon it. I then 
thought, and I have since been fully confirmed in the opin- 
ion, that I discovered in it a specimen, or rather the putrid 
remains, of the spinous shark. It wanted the head, which 
had been broken off by the fish having been dashed against 
the rocks by the waves. The tail was also broken off, but 
still hung by a filament to the body. In shape it some- 
what resembled the tail of the common dog-fish ; but there 
evidently had been two fins on the back, nearer to the pos- 
terior than the anterior portion of the animal, though these 
had been broken or rubbed off. The skin, which was of a 
dark-blue color, and had a leathery appearance, was thickly 
beset with curved thorns or spines (whence the animal’s 
name), nearly all of which were more or less damaged. I 
Inow of nothing that I could liken these thorns or spikes 
to but the thorns or spikes which may be seen on the stem 
of an old rose-bush—with this exception, that the spikes of 
the fish are larger. From its position in the water, though 
close to the rocks, I could not make out its girth in any 
part whatever; but from where the head had joined the 
body to the tip of the tail it was about two yards in length. 
Having fully satisfied myself that the present specimen, 
from its decomposed state and the holes perforated in it by 
. 
