21 6 
Mr. Home's anatomical Account 
thirty feet long, and it is rendered still more so, as the person 
who gives the length in fathoms, says, he saw at that time the 
six legs, the two foremost being larger than the hinder ones, 
and the lower joint more rounded from the body to the toes. The 
pectoral fin, which is preserved, proves this declaration to be 
incorrect : the person who measured the fish with a foot rule, 
declares the length, from the hole in the head to the begin- 
ning of the mane, to be exactly fifteen feet, which is probably 
correct, since a Squalus of about thirty-six feet long would 
measure, from the fore part of the skull to the dorsal fin, 
about fifteen feet ; but the other measurement must be ques- 
tionable. 
It is deserving of remark, that there is no one structure 
represented in this drawing, which was not actually seen. 
The skeleton of the holders corresponds with the legs in the 
drawing, the margin of the dorsal fin in a putrid state with 
the mane ; so that the only errors are in the contortions to- 
wards the tail, the length of the fish, and the number of the 
holders, which were mistaken for legs :* and when we recol- 
lect that the drawing was made from memory six weeks after 
the fish had been seen by those, who describe it, during which 
interval it had been their principal subject of conversation, 
we may conclude that so extraordinary an object, as the mu- 
tilated fish must appear when believed to be a perfect one, 
would, in their different discourses, have every part exagge- 
* This mistake of the holders of the male shark for legs, has been frequently made. 
There is a drawing in Sir Joseph Banks’s library, sent from Ireland, in which the 
fish is represented walking like a duck, with broad webbed feet. The skin of a male 
Squalus maximus was exhibited in London some years ago distended by means of 
hoops, and the holders were shown as its legs, on which it occasionally walked. 
