1144 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
Syn. Brygde , Strom, Sonelm. Beskr., pt. I, p. 273. Beinhaakall, 
Olafs., Reis. Isl., p. 988. 
Squalus mawimus , Gunner., Trondhj. Selsk. Skr., vol. Ill, p. 
33, tab. II; vol. IV, p. 14, tab. IV, fig. 1 ; Lin., Syst. 
Nat., ed. XII, tom. I, p. 400; Penn. ( Basking shark), 
Brit. Zool., vol. Ill (ed. 1776), p. 89, tab. XIII; (?) Fabr., 
Fna Groenl., p. 130; Mitch., Trans. Litt., Phil. Soc., N. 
York, vol. I, p. 486; Cuv. (subg. Selaclie), R'egn. Anim., 
ed. 1, tom. II, p. 129; Fab., Fisch. Isl., p. 20; Nilss. 
(Squalus), Prodr. Iclithyol. Scand., p. 114; Yarr. (Se- 
lachus), Brit. Fish., ed. 1, vol. II, p. 396; Mull., Hle 
(Selache), Plagiost., pp. 71 et 191; Dek. ( Selachus ), Zool. 
N. York, pt. Ill, p. 357, tab. 63, fig. 208; Kr. (Selache), 
Damn. Fisk., vol. Ill, p. 932; Nilss., Skand. Fna, Fisk., 
p. 720; Couch, Fish. Brit. Isl., vol. I, p. 60, tab. XIV 
(+ Polyprosopus Rashleighanus, p. 67 + Polypr. macer , p. 
68, tab. XV et vol. IV, p. 421, tab. XV*); Dum., Hist. 
Nat. Poiss. (su. a Buff.), tom. I, p. 413, tab. 3, fig. 18; 
Stor. (Selachus), Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts, Sc., n. ser., vol. 
IX, p. 229, tab. XXXVII, fig. 3; Gthr (Selache), Cat. Brit. 
Mus., Fish., vol. VIII, p. 394; Strp (Selachus), Overs. D. 
Vid. Selsk. Forh. 1873, p. 47, tab. II; Pav., Ann. Mus. Civ. 
Genova, vol. VI (1874), p. 5, tabb. I — III; vol. XII (1878), 
p. 348, tab. Ill; Coll. (Selache), Forh. Vid. Selsk. Chrnia 
1874, Tillsegsh., p. 209; (Selachus) ibid. 1879, No. 1, p. 103; 
Gerv., P et H. (Squalus 1. Cetorhinus), Journ. Zool., tom. V 
(1876), p. 319; Ltkn (Selachus), Vid. Meddel. Naturh. For. 
Kbhvn 1879 — 80, p. 62; Mor. (Selache), Hist. Nat. Poiss. 
Fr., tom. I, p. 305; Doderl., Man. Ittiol. Medit., fasc. II, 
p. 70; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit., Irel., vol. II, p. 303, tab. CLVIII, 
fig. 1; Lillj., Sv., Norg. Fna, Fisk., vol. Ill, p. 633. 
Squalus Gunnerianus, Blnvlle, Journ. Phys., tom. LXXI (1810), 
p. 256, tab. II ( + Squ. pelegrinus + Squ. Homianus, p. 
257); Id., Squ. Pelerin, Ann. Mus. D’Hist. Nat., tom. XVIII 
(1811), p. 88, tab. 6; Id., Cetorhinus Gunneri + Cet. Pere- 
grinus + Cet. Sliavianus + Cet. Homianus (?), Bull. Sc. Soc. 
Philom. 1816, p. 121. 
Squalus isodus, Maori, Att. Accad. R. Sc. Borbon., Nap., vol. I 
(1819), p. 55, tab. I, fig. 1; tab. II, fig. 2 (+ Squ. ro- 
stratus, p. 76, tab. 1, fig. 2). Squalus (Cetorhinus) rostratus , 
Cornish, Zoologist, vol. XXVIII (1870), p. 2259. 
Squalus elephas, Lesueur, Journ. Acad. Nat. Hist. Philad., tom. 
II (1882), p. 343. 
The Basking Shark attains a length of at least about 
13 or 15 m. Larger specimens are cited; but the ac- 
counts of these do not admit of satisfactory verification. 
Gunnerus states, for instance, that specimens have been 
met with measuring 16 fathoms (30 m.) in length 
and 3 fathoms (oV 2 m -) in breadth. A specimen of 
this size would yield over 28 hectolitres of liver; and 
according to a statement in Collett a Basking Shark 
was harpooned in West Fjord about 1868 that con- 
tained 23 tunnor (27 hectolitres) of liver. Nilsson 
was informed by the fishermen on the west coast of 
Norway ivith whom he conversed in 1826, that they 
harpooned Basking Sharks every year considerably more 
than 40 ft. (12 m.) long, and that the liver of each 
fish filled 10 — 12 tunnor. The largest Basking Sharks 
they had seen, had yielded 14 tunnor of liver. 
Apart from the above-mentioned characters, the 
Basking Shark in form of body rather closely resembles 
a Porbeagle, being of a terete, fusiform shape, on the 
back rather flat, behind with some lateral compression, 
though broadened by the lateral carinse of the tail, 
which render the breadth of this part greater than 
the depth. The greatest depth of the body measures 
in young specimens, according to Pavesi, about 10 — 12 % 
of its length, in old, according to Blainville, about 
18 %, according to Doderlein as much as 22 %, of 
the same. 
The different form of the head in the young and 
old we have remarked above. The alteration is essen- 
tially due to the position of the cleft of the mouth, 
which in the young is transverse, as in the Rays, in 
the old curved, as in other Sharks. The corners of the 
mouth, which during youth are directed straight out- 
wards, form the rounded protuberances on the sides of 
the head behind the eyes. In the jaws the recurved, 
conical, but sharp-edged, pointed teeth are set in 4 — 7 
transverse rows, but are so small that they “are often 
concealed by the gums and accumulated filth’’ (Gun- 
nerus). In a Basking Shark 39 dm. long they are 
3 mm. high, according to Lilljeborg. Storer counted 
1,400 teeth in the lower jaw. The nostrils lie on the 
under surface of the snout, but close to either side- 
margin, much nearer to the eyes than to the tip of the 
snout. The relative length both of the snout and the 
entire head is considerably greater in the young than 
in the old. In the former, according to Pavesi, the 
length of the snout is about 1 / 10 or 1 / i3 of that of the 
body, in the latter 1 / 30 of the same or less. The length 
of the head to the first gill-opening is in the former 
about V 4 — V 5 , in the latter at most less than 1 / G , of 
the length of the body". The eyes, which are round 
and small, undergo, as usual, the same alteration of 
growth. According to Pavesi the diameter of the orbit 
in the young is about 1 / 6 of the breadth of the head 
at the base of the snout; according to Storer this dia- 
meter measures in an older specimen '/ 8 °f the inter- 
orbital width. The gill-openings extend across so con- 
siderable a portion of the sides (the throat) that the 
distance between the tops of the first pair is only twice 
According to Storer the length of the head in a specimen 9 m. long was 15 7 % of that of the body. 
