GREENLAND SHARK. 
1171 
The fishery for the Greenland Shark is fairly lu- 
crative in many localities. On the coast of Norway, 
and occasionally on that of Bohuslan, the Greenland 
Shark is sought after principally for the sake of its 
liver, from which oil is extracted; but in Iceland and 
Greenland the flesh is eaten both by man and dogs. 
A large fish contains, according to Rink, two barrels 
of liver, which, when melted down, yields oil to the 
amount of about 53 %. The flesh is also oily, but the oil 
exudes in process of drying, or may be removed by press- 
ing while the fish is fresh. The Icelanders, like the Nor- 
wegians in Gunnerus’s time, cut the flesh up into rav 
and rdkling a . The Greenlanders prefer to eat it rotten. 
When fresh, it tastes like Halibut, according to Rink, 
and has an agreeable, white appearance, but is some- 
what coarse and tough. 
In Norway the Greenland Shark is caught on large 
hooks, turning freely on a swivel, and with a snood 
of slender iron-chain, which the fish cannot bite asun- 
der. The line is a centimetre thick or a little thinner, 
and is Avound up on a small Avindlass, made fast to the 
bulwark of the vessel. With this tackle the bankers 
lie at anchor in the open sea between Norway and 
Bear Island or Spitsbergen, in 100 — 200 fathoms of 
water. The method practised is the same on the coasts 
of Iceland and South Greenland; but in North Green- 
land, according to Rink, the Greenland Shark is taken 
with far less trouble and much greater success through 
holes in the fast ice. The strong-smelling bait is dang- 
led only a feAv metres below the surface, or it even 
happens that the Shark may be enticed right up to the 
hole, where it is captured with a gaff. The sluggish- 
ness of the Greenland Shark is such that it sometimes 
alloAvs itself to be taken on an ordinary Cod-line. 
Among the parasites of the Greenland Shark is 
often observed a crustacean, Lernceopoda elongata, 
which attaches itself to the cornea of the eye, and 
Avhich Avas first figured by Scoresby and, after him, 
by Couch in his figure of the Greenland Shark. 
their length, and which crooked backwards along the posterior surface of the diaphragm, each to its respective side, below and along the 
spinal column. The two ribbon-shaped ovaries were symmetrically suspended on each side in the anterior part of the abdominal cavity and 
were of about the same size, 30 cm. ( 2 / 3 of the length of the said cavity) long and 2 1 / i cm. broad. The eggs were innumerable, and hardly 
distinguishable to the naked eye. At no point was there any indication of an earlier development in one part of the egg-mass than in an- 
other. This specimen too seemed accordingly to bear out Lutken’s opinion as to the reproductive operations of the Greenland Shark; but 
the question cannot be fully solved until older and ripe females have been examined. 
° See above, p. 415. 
