1170 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
Sea and the Channel (off the mouth of the Seine), as 
well as in the Cattegat, even off Mount Kullen, where 
Baron Gyllenstjerna secured a specimen during the 
spring of 1831, and on the north coast of Zealand, 
whence Kroyer and Petersen each adduce a specimen. 
On the coast of Bohusl&n the Greenland Shark is not 
too scarce to have received a special name among the 
fishermen, being called Hamcir (as in Norway) and, on 
Koster, Blamauer or Blamag-miir. Strictly, however, 
it is a deep-sea fish, with its true habitat at a depth 
of some hundreds of fathoms, so that its appearance in 
the upper strata and in shallow water must be regarded 
as more or less fortuitous. 
The Greenland Shark is sluggish and insensitive, 
but rapacious. Its acute hearing and keen smell have 
always been remarked by the fisherman. From the 
depths and from afar it is attracted by the odour of 
dead flesh, whether a whale is being cut up, a seal- 
hunt in progress, or a piece of carrion be cast out as 
a bait. From the carcase of the whale it tears pieces 
as big as a man’s head, and cares little if the exaspe- 
rated whaler stabs it with his long knife or pierces it 
with a lance. It is soon ready again to renew its vo- 
racious repast. To a moderate-sized Greenland Shark 
a seal is a comfortable mouthful. In the stomach of a 
Greenland Shark, according to Gunnerus, the carcase 
of a reindeer has been found; and Faber relates that, 
when horses belonging to the Icelanders venture on too 
thin ice and are drowned, the Greenland Shark makes 
its way up the narrowest fjords — where it never puts 
in an appearance at other times — to feed on horse- 
flesh. But as a rule, no doubt, its prey consists of live 
animals; and in the stomach of a specimen 44 dm. 
long Faber found a whole seal ( Phoca vitulina), 8 large 
Cod, a Ling 127 2 dm. long, the head of a large Hali- 
but, and several pieces of whale-blubber. It has even 
been considered dangerous to man. Fabricius relates 
that it attacks the Greenlanders in their kayaks and 
bites both boat and kayaker in two. The Greenlanders, 
he states, therefore took care never to make a noise or 
talk aloud when passing over deep spots, for fear the 
Greenland Shark should hear them and come up. Rink, 
hoAvever, seems to give no credence to these accounts, 
and even says that the Greenlanders are only afraid of 
the very large Greenland Sharks, which by their move- 
ments and with their sharp skin might tear holes in 
the kayaks. Faber states that in Iceland no instance 
had been recorded of a Greenland Shark attacking 
human beings. 
As has been indicated above, ichthyologists are 
still doubtful whether the Greenland Shark gives birth 
to living young or lays eggs. Fabricius states posi- 
tively that it is viviparous, and Faber adds that the 
young are born in July and August. A female of 
Acanthorhinus rostratus dissected by Cornalia 3 had 6 
foetuses in the oviducts, and another prepared by MM. 
Gal at Nice * 6 contained 12 foetuses. Lutken, however, 
pointed out the singularity of the fact that in recent 
times, so far as he could ascertain, no foetus had been 
found in any Greenland Shark, and also cited express 
statements from Iceland, where a general conviction 
obtains that the Greenland Shark is oviparous. In sup- 
port of this opinion he adduces the circumstance that 
the eggs of the Greenland Shark, which have been 
found, inside the fish, of the size of goose-eggs, are so 
numerous that an adult female sometimes contains a 
barrel and a half or two barrels thereof; and such 
numerousness, he says, is surely not compatible with 
the development of the foetuses within the oviducts, 
provided the development be simultaneous or nearly so. 
The last-mentioned assumption, however, has not been 
demonstrated; and so long as this is the case, we have 
good reason to follow Lilljeborg and give the prefe- 
rence to the earlier belief that in this respect the 
Greenland Shark resembles its nearest relatives, and 
gives birth to living young c . 
“ See Lutken, I. c. 
6 See Moreau, 1. c. 
0 Long after the printing of the above in the Swedish edition of the present work, on Christmas Eve, 1894, the Royal Museum re- 
ceived a female Greenland Shark that had been taken some days before on the coast of Bohuslan. The length of the body to the tip of 
the upper caudal lobe was 172 cm., to that of the lower caudal lobe 158 cm. The length of the abdominal cavity was about 44 % of the 
former measurement. The two pointed lobes of the liver, which gradually narrowed behind, were longer than the said cavity, the length of 
the left lobe being about lpg times (136 % of) that of the right lobe l'/ 4 times (126 / of) the length of the abdominal cavity; and they 
were therefore bent behind, their posterior extremities being directed forwards. Both were of about the same breadth, which measured, where 
greatest (in front), about 1 /, 0 of the length of the abdominal cavity. The gall-bladder was rather large, twice as long as broad, and about 
equal in length to the base of the ventral fins or about V 8 as long as the abdominal cavity. On each side of the ventrally median peritoneal 
fold joining the gall-bladder to the diaphragm, opened the anterior end of the oviducts, which were of almost uniform thickness throughout 
