326 WHITE SHARK. 



remarkable particulars : the brain is small : the 

 heart furnished with one ventricle and one auricle, 

 which latter is of very large size, and receives the 

 Vena cava : the aorta and other arteries are of 

 great strength : the throat is very short, and of a 

 diameter not greatly inferior to that of the begin- 

 ning of the stomach, which is of vast size, and 

 dilatable to a great degree : the intestinal canal 

 consists of two portions, one analogous to the 

 small, and the other to the large intestines of qua- 

 drupeds, but this latter portion is very short in 

 proportion, and is so composed as to compensate 

 by its interior structure for its brevity, since in- 

 stead of forming a mere continued tube, as in most 

 animals, it consists rather of a large series of meshes 

 or divisions, placed in a spiral direction throughout 

 its length : the liver is large, and divided into two 

 unequal lobes : in the stomach and intestines, ac- 

 cording to Commerson, are usually found a great 

 many taeniae or tape-worms, which not only infest the 

 cavities of these parts, but even penetrate into and 

 lodge themselves between the interior coats : these 

 animals therefore, by their vellication and motions, 

 must be supposed to aggravate the natural voracity 

 of the Shark, and to impel it to engorge a large 

 quantity of food, in order to allay the sensations 

 excited by these internal enemies : the milt, in the 

 male fish is disposed into two portions, and equals 

 the length of about a third of the whole animal ; 

 and in the female the ovaries are of similar length : 

 during the breeding-season, which takes place at 

 different periods in different climates, the Sharks are 



