TOPE. 
1135 
is frequently taken. In Liim Fjord a specimen was 
caught by Feddersen off Struer in the summer of 1876. 
A female 15 dm. long was taken off Skummeslof (Hal- 
land) in November, 1881, and forwarded to the Royal 
Museum by Mr. A. v. Moller. Another, not much 
inferior in size, was secured in the north of the Sound 
during January, 1835, and was described by Sundevall 
in the former edition of the present work. It is other- 
wise usual that only young Tope are met with near 
land and enter the Sound (Krdyer and Nilsson), pe- 
netrating to the shallows round Saltholm (Winther). 
Older individuals generally confine themselves, except 
during the breeding season, to deeper water. Their 
haunts are soon learnt by the fisherman, who finds the 
snoods of his Fladdock-lines torn off, and perhaps hauls 
in a Tope that has eventually been hooked, and in its 
desperate struggles has twisted the line round its body, 
in the same manner and with the same result as we 
have just related of the Blue Shark. A Tope 13 dm. 
long, which had been forwarded from Bohuslan to the 
Royal Museum, had in its stomach two Haddocks about 
4 dm. long, each with a hook and a bit of the snood 
in the mouth. The great strength of the Tope appears 
from a statement made by two fishermen who were 
oat fishing for Ling in September, 1887, about seven 
miles off Langesund. In 10 fathoms of water a Tope 
seized the bait, and the line being strong, he towed 
the boat behind him for half an hour. The fish was 
a metre long and weighed 55 kilo. 
In summer, from June till September, the Tope 
gives birth to its young, about 20 — 40 being excluded 
from the female at a time, and these already about 
4 dm. long. Through the winter the young stay near 
the coast, while the old retire to deep water, and ac- 
cording to Yarrell they reach their full size the fol- 
lowing year; but no precise information on this head 
is forthcoming. Couch says that on the English coast 
they are about 5 dm. long in January; but a Tope of 
this size was taken off the coast of Bohuslan by Mr. 
C. A. Hansson in September. 
The Tope does more harm than good to the fisher- 
man. The oil extracted from its liver and the fine 
shagreen prepared from its skin hardly compensate 
the damage it causes. Its flesh is poor, but in spite 
of this it is eaten in many places. At the Danish fishing- 
villages, according to Kroyer, it is boiled fresh, or 
dried and sold in this condition at the markets of 
Northern Jutland. According to Moreau it also finds 
consumers in the French departments bordering on the 
English Channel. 
The Swedish name of hdstorje (lid, haj -= Shark) is 
derived, according to Sundevall, either from the re- 
semblance of the head to that of the Sturgeon (storen) 
or from the size of the fish (stor = great, large), Swe- 
dish fishermen meaning by lia or haj , when used with- 
out qualification, the Picked Dog-fish. Similarly they 
call the Tunny Makrilstorje (Great Mackerel). The 
name of hethaj (Bait-Shark) is conferred upon it in 
Bohuslan for its habit of stripping the long-lines and 
Haddock-lines of the bait. 
Fam. LAMNIDiE. 
Two dorsal fins and one anal, the first dorsal opposite to the space between the pectoral and ventral fins. Eyes 
without nictitating membrane. Spiracles obliterated or minute. All the branchial apertures situated in front of 
the pectoral fins a . 
This family too contains large, not to say the 
largest Sharks, and has the same pelagic distribution 
as the preceding one, but is not so rich in forms. Gun- 
ther includes in his Catalogue only 9 ascertained spe- 
cies. Most of these are characterized by large — one 
genus by exceedingly large — gill-openings. Some are 
formidable predatory fishes, with dentition as powerful 
as that of the preceding family or even more so; 
others — among them the largest Sharks — live on mi- 
nute animals, and have extremely small teeth in pro- 
portion to the size of the body. These differences led 
Gunther to divide the family into two subfamilies, 
which are represented in the Scandinavian fauna by 
the following three species: 
a The last-mentioned character is adduced as being generally valid and distinct, and especially serviceable in cases where the presence 
or absence of a nictitating membrane cannot be controlled. Yet it happens, as in the Fox-Shark, that the character may easily lead to a 
misconception, the hindmost gill-opening approximating its lower end close to the beginning of the base of the pectoral fin, and being di- 
rected, as well as the penultimate opening, obliquely backwards and upwards above the said base. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
143 
