TOPE. 
1133 
Syn. raledg Kviuv, Abistot., De anim. hist., lib. VI, cap. XI. Galeus 
cants, Rondel., De Pise., p. 377. Canis galeus, Willughb., 
Hist. Pise., p. 51 (ex Salv.). Squalus naribus ori vicinis, 
foraminibus exiguis ad oculos, Art., Ichthyol. , Gen., p. 68; 
Syn., p. 97. 
Squalus Galeus, Lin., Syst. Nat., ed. X, tom. I, p. 234; 
Blnvlle ( Galeorhinus ), Bull. Sc. Soc. Pliilom. 1816, p. 121; 
Cuv. (snbg. Galeus ), R'egn. Anim., ed. I, tom. II, p. 127; 
Nilss. {Squalus), Prodr. Iehth. Scand ., p. 115; Sundev., 
v. Wk., Skand. Fisk., ed. 1, p. 185, tab. 45; Couch 
{Toper), Fish. Brit. Isl ., vol. I, p. 45, tab. IX; Jord., 
Gilb. {Galeorhinus), Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 16, p. 21; 
Coll., N. Mag. Naturv. Chrnia, Bd 29 (1884), p. 116. 
Galeus vulgaris, Flmng, Brit. Anim., p. 165; Yarr., Brit. 
Fish., ed. 2, vol. II, p. 509; Kr., Damn. Fisk., vol. Ill, 
p. 834; Coll., Forh. Vid. Selsk. Chrnia 1874, Tillaegsh., 
p. 207; 1879, No. 1, p. 102; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., Irel., 
vol. II, p. 292, tab. CLIII; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fna, Fisk., 
vol. Ill, p. 612. 
Galeus eanis, Bonap., Iconogr. Fna. Ital., tom. Ill, Pesci, tab. 
132, fig. 3; Mull., Hle, Plagiost., p. 57; Nilss., Skand. 
Fna, Fisk., p. 714; Barb. Boc., Cap., Peix. Plagiost., p. 
18; Gthr, Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. VIII, p. 379; 
Winth., Naturh. Tidsk. Kbhvn, ser. 3, vol. XII, p. 56; 
Mor., Hist. Nat. Poiss. Fr., tom. I, p. 317; Doderl., Man. 
Ittiol. Medit., fasc. II, p. 36; Car., Prodr. Face Medit., 
vol. II, p. 509. 
Galeus Linnei , Malm, Gbgs, Boh. Fna, p. 618. 
The Tope, known in France as le chien de mer and 
in Italy as la lamiola, attains a length of about 2 in." 
The form of the body is moderately elongated for a 
Shark, but varies rather considerably with age. Old 
individuals are more robust, with deeper body, than 
young. The greatest depth, just in front of the first 
dorsal fin, measures in the young about 1 / 10 — 1 / 9 , in 
the old sometimes 1 / 1 , of the length of the body. The 
least depth, just in front of the caudal fin, shows less 
alteration, measuring about 1 / 30 (3'1 — 3’4 %) of the 
length of the hody or 17—18 % of that of the head 
to the first gill-opening. The ordinary fusiform shape 
is laterally compressed in the anterior abdominal re- 
gion, further back more terete or of a rounded quad- 
rangular section, the dorsal margin being depressed, 
and the ventral almost plane. In front of the first 
dorsal fin, however, the back is bluntly sharpened 
(fastigiate or a so-called hog-back), which gives the 
section of the body in front of the pectoral fins an 
almost triangular form. Even the form of the head 
partakes in this modification, approaching in old spe- 
cimens to that of a three-sided pyramid, but with a 
a From Dublin Blake-Knox states (Zoologist, Dec. 1866, p. 
ft. (21 dm.) long. 
6 According to Krcyer sometimes 52. 
longitudinal swelling behind the eyes and a flattened 
snout, the lateral margins of which form a parabola. 
In younger specimens the head is flatter forward from 
the occiput, shallower, and behind the eyes of a more 
quadrangular section. 
The length of the head to the first gill-opening is 
somewhat less than 1 / 5 (18 — 19 %) of the length of the 
body. The length of the snout from the preorbital 
margin is about 4(1 — 48 % b of the length of the head. 
The eyes themselves are indeed round (with round 
iris), in the young with round, interiorly acute-angled 
pupil, in old with elongated, slit-like pupil; but the 
orbits are oblong, their longitudinal diameter measuring 
in specimens 1 / 2 m. long about 18 — 19 %, in specimens 
1 7 3 m. long about 12 — 13 %, of the length of the head, 
the vertical diameter only 1 / 2 — 2 / 3 of the longitudinal. 
The suborbital margin has been turned inwards to form 
the fold known as the nictitating membrane. The use 
of this membrane we have noticed in the Blue Shark. 
It is for the most part shagreened, like the skin of the 
body, but at the fold itself (below and at the corners of 
the eyes) naked and soft. The interorbital width is 
about 2 / 5 of the length of the head. The spiracles be- 
hind tlie eyes are fairly large and distinct in young 
specimens; in old they are contracted into small, elon- 
gated slits and simultaneously removed farther from 
the eyes, the distance increasing from 1 / 3 to ’/ 4 of the 
longitudinal diameter of the orbit. Spiracular gills are 
wanting or are extremely vestigial, forming a row of 
10 — 11 small papillae, situated rather far in. The nos- 
trils are somewhat obliquely set slits, directed inwards 
and backwards from the edge of the snout, on the 
under surface thereof, and their length is about equal 
to the vertical diameter of the orbits. Their anterior, 
overlapping margin is double, being divided into an 
outer (lower) and an inner (upper) lobe, and each of 
these lobes is furnished, about half-way or two-thirds of 
the way along the nostril, with a small, pointed, tri- 
angular flap (valvule). Their outer, somewhat expanded 
corner, which lies close to the edge of the snout, is 
separated from the tip thereof by a distance of about 
7 / 10 (72 — 88 %) of the length of the same. Their inner 
angle lies at a distance from the anterior margin of 
the mouth that is equal to the height of the gill- 
19) that he has taken Tope, which are common there, as much as 7 
