SEC 
cartilaginous, and the throat extremely wide : 
the eyes, as in most of the genus, of a'blueish 
or greenish cast, rather small, and half over- 
hung by their skinny veil : the pectoral fins 
are large, strong, broad, and pointed: the 
first dorsal fin moderately large, somewhat 
falcated behind, and pointed : the second is 
situated very low on the back, near the 
origin of the tail, which is slightly lengthened, 
and of a bilobate shape, the upper lobe or 
division slightly pointed, and the lower or ter- 
minal lobe rather rounded: -so great is the 
I strength of this part, that even a young shark 
I of about six feet in length is able by a stroke 
Of its tail to break a man’s leg ; it is usual 
therefore with sailors to cut off the tail the in- 
stant they drag a shark on board : the anal 
fin is placed somewhat beyond the middle of 
the abdomen, and is of moderate size, and of 
a somewhat square outline: the general colour 
of the whole animal is a pale or whitish ash, 
darker or browner on the upper parts : the 
mouth is situated considerably beneath the 
front, for which reason the animal is said, 
1 like most others of this genus, to be obliged 
to turn on its back, or rather side, in order to 
seize its prey. / 
‘ r Sharks (says Mr. Pennant) are the dread 
of sailors in all hot climates, where they con- 
stantly attend the ships, in expectation of 
what may drop overboard: a man that has 
that misfortune perishes without redemption : 
they have been seen to dart at him like gud- 
geons to a worm.” They are said to attack 
negroes in preference to Europeans, and are 
observed in particular to attend with unre- 
mitting assiduity the passage of the slave-ships 
from the coasts of Africa to the West Indian 
| islands, and, as Cepede very happily and 
, justly observes, may be considered as form- 
ing a proper escort to the cruel conductors 
I of those most accursed vessels. “ A master 
[ of a-Guinea-ship (says Pennant) informed me 
that a rage of suicide prevailed among his 
5 -new-bought slaves, from a notion the unhappy 
creatures had, that after death they should be 
restored again to their families, friends, and 
country. To convince them that at least they 
should not reanimate their bodies, he ordered 
one of their corpses to be tied by the heels to 
j a rope, and lowered into the sea ; and though 
it was drawn up again as fast as the united 
| force of the crew could be exerted, yet in that 
j short space the sharks had devoured every 
part but the feet, which were secured at the 
I end of the cord.” The shark does not spare 
j even its own species. A Laplander, accord- 
1 ing to Leems, had taken a shark, and fastened 
it to his canoe ; but soon missed it, without 
being able to guess how : in a short time after- 
wards he caught a second of much larger size, 
in which, when opened, he found the one he 
had lost. 
The internal parts of the shark present many 
remarkable particulars: the brain is small: 
the heart furnished with one ventricle and one 
auricle, which latter is of very large size, and 
receives the vena cava. In the stomach and 
; intestines, according to Commersou, are usu- 
j ally found a great many taenia; or tape-worms, 
I which net only infest the cavities of these 
parts, but even penetrate into and lodge them- 
[ selves between the interior coats : these ani- 
: mals, therefore, by their vellication and mo- 
tions, must he supposed to aggravate the na- 
. tural voracity of the shark, and to impel it to 
(engorge a large quantity of food, in order to 
Vol. II. 
SQUALUS. 
allay the sensations excited by these internal 
enemies : the milt, in the male fish, is disposed 
into two portions, and equals the length of 
about a third of the whole animal ; and in the 
female the ovaries are of similar length. Du- 
ring the breeding-season, which takes place at 
different periods in different climates, the 
sharks are observed to approach the shores, in 
order to deposit their young in the most fa- 
vourable situations : these are discharged, to 
the number of two or three at a time, still 
adhering to the capsule in which they had 
been before inclosed, and are excluded be- 
fore the young animal has had time to break 
from it : the length of the newlv-hatched 
shark does not exceed that of a few inches. 
2. Squalus maximus, basking shark. This 
is a very large species, scarcely, if at all, infe- 
rior in size to the white shark; its length, ac- 
cording to Mr. Pennant, being from three to 
twelve yards, and even Sometimes more. 
Great numbers of this species of shark were ob- 
served to visit the bays of Caernarvonshire 
and Anglesea in the summers of 1756 and a 
few succeeding years; continuing there only 
during the hot months, and quitting the coast 
about Michaelmas. They appear in the firth 
of Clyde, and among the Hebrides, in the 
month of June, in small shoals of seven or 
eight, but more frequently in pairs ; and de- 
part again in July. “ They had nothing (says 
Mr. Pennant), of the fierce and voracious na- 
ture of other sharks, and were so tame as to 
suffer themselves to be stroked : they gene- 
rally lay motionless on the surface, commonly 
on theij- bellies, bat sometimes, like tired 
swimmers, on their backs: their food seemed 
to consist entirely of sea-plants, no remains of 
fish being ever discovered in the stomachs of 
numbers that were cut up, but the half-digest- 
ed parts of algae, &c.” Linnaeus says they 
feed on medusae. 
Mr. Pennant adds, that a shoal of this spe- 
cies will permit a boat to follow them without 
accelerating their motion till almost within 
contact, when it is usual for the harpoon er to 
strike his weapon into them as near the gills 
as possible ; but that they are often so insen- 
sible as not to move till the united strength 
of two men has forced in the harpoon deep- 
er. As soon as they perceive themselves 
wounded, they fling up their tail, and plunge 
headlong to the bottom, and frequently coil 
the rope round them in their agonies, at- 
tempting to disengage the harpoon from them 
by rolling on the ground, for it is often found 
greatly bent. As soon as they discover that 
their efforts are in vain, they swim away with 
amazing rapidity, and with such violence, that 
there has been an instance of a vessel of 
seventy tons having been towed away against 
a fresh gale: they sometimes run off with 
two hundred fathom of line, and with two 
harpoons in them, and will employ the fishers 
for* twelve, and sometimes for twenty-four 
hours, before they are subdued: when killed, 
they arc either hawied on shore, or, if at a 
distance from land, to the vessel’s side : the 
liver (the only useful part) is taken out, and 
marked out, and melted into oil in kettles 
provided for the purpose. A large fish will 
yield eight barrels of oil, and two of useless 
sediment. The fishers observed on these 
sharks a sort of leech, of a reddish colour, and 
about two feet long, but which fell off when 
the fish was brought to the surface of the 
water, and left a white mark on the skin, 
4 T 
697 
3. Squalus caUilus. Spotted shark. Lesser 
spotted dog-fish. Habit rather slender: length 
from two to three feet ; head large ; snout 
prominent, and slightly pointed ; skin rough; 
body cylindric; colour pale brick-red, marked 
with very numerous, small, rounded, blackish, 
or dusky spots; abdomen whitish; both the 
dorsal fins placed much nearer to the tail than 
the head ; ventral fins connate, large, and of 
a- slightly pointed form ; anal fin small; tail 
long, bilobate, with the lower lobe continued 
to a considerable distance beneath. Native 
of the European seas: a very voracious ani- 
mal, preying on the smaller fishes, crabs, Ac. 
According to Pennant it breeds from nine to 
thirteen young at a time, is very numerous on 
our own coasts, and very injurious to the 
fisheries: the liver is said to be highly noxious, 
causing long-continued stupor, succeeded by 
an universal itching, with a total desquama- 
tion of the cuticle. 
4. Squalus stellaris. Rock shark, or greater 
spotted dog-fish. The general colour of this 
animal is a reddish grey, with round, .un- 
equal, blackish spots scattered over the whole 
body. r i he male and female are said to differ 
as to the disposition of spots. Native of the 
European seas, generally frequenting rocky 
places, and preying on various moilusca and 
Crustacea. Its skin is used in commerce for 
the same purposes as those of other small 
sharks, and the flesh is esteemed somewhat 
more eatable than that of the former species. 
In Edwards’s figure of the young of this fish, 
the body is represented as barred across the 
back with several broad brown bands. 
5. Squalus ocellatus. Ocellated shark. 
Length about two feet and a half : colour ash- 
brown, with a few scattered dusky spots; 
back crossed by a few dusky bands; abdomen 
greenish-grey: teeth numerous, small, sharp, 
compressed, and dilated at the base : pectoral 
fins rounded, and of a dusky or blackish co- 
lour, edged with white ; first dorsal fin situ- 
ated beyond the ventral, marked at its ante- 
rior edge with two black spots, and emargi- 
nated behind; second of similar shape, bnt 
smaller: anal fin placed very near the tail, 
which is slightly sublobate. Native of the 
southern Pacific : observed about the coasts 
of New Hoiland during the first voyage of 
sir Joseph Banks. 
0. Squalus zygaena. Hammer-headed shark. 
Perhaps the most deformed of all the marine 
animals. Length from five to fifteen or -even- 
teen feet: habit rather slender; body subey- 
lindric : head dilated on each side to a great 
extent ; the eyes, vvhic h are very large, being 
placed at each extremity ; mouth beneath, as 
in other sharks; teeth sharp, denticulated on 
each side, and disposed in three rows in each 
jaw ; first dorsal fin rather large, of a some- 
what falcated shape, and placed towards the 
upper part of the back ; the second much 
smaller, and situated near the tail, which is 
rather short than long, and lobed beneath, the 
fin running on nearly as far as the vent ; co- 
lour brown above, paler or whitish beneath. 
Native of the Mediterranean and Indian seas, 
where it is scarcely less voracious and formi- 
dable than e ven the white shark itself ; attack- 
ing such as are accidentally exposed to its . 
fury, or are incautiously bathing or swimming 
in its neighbourhood. It is observed about 
the coasts of the southern islands, and parti- 
cularly of Otaheite, where the natives, trust- 
ing to their dexterity, in swimming, appear t® 
