BI,UE SHABK. 
33 
seen to enter the mouth, the circumstance is to be explained 
by the well-known rapacious appetite of the parent, rather than 
by its affection; and that it will require both a closer and longer 
continued observation to render the more amiable motive the 
undeniable one. But that the young may be received into the 
stomach and return without injury, appears from evidence 
adduced by Mr. Darwin, in his “Journal of a Voyage round 
the World.” “I have heard,” says he, “from Dr. Allen, of 
Forres, that he has frequently found a Diodon, floating alive and 
distended, in the stomach of the Shark; and that on several 
occasions he has known it eat its way, not only through the 
coats of the stomach, but through the .sides of the monster, 
which has thus been killed.” It is further known of all the 
Sharks, that they possess a power of throwing up from the 
stomach at their will anything they find indigestible; so that 
the natural difficulties of the ease are less than they appear. 
From its well-known destructive character flshermen are 
alvays eager to shorten the race of this fish; and in consequence 
many hundreds of them are caught in the course of a season. 
But the capture is of no intrinsic value, for it yields no other 
profit than some oil from the liver, and the body for manure. 
Jonston, in common with other writers, describes this fish as 
having teeth with serrated edges; but Lacepede, vol. i., knows 
no other but a Blue Shark with teeth specially described as 
having edges not serrated. Risso, Icthyologie, p. 26, describes 
a Blue Shark with the same characters as those of Lacepede; 
but he also gives another species, which he rightly believes to 
be the true Squalus glaucus of Avtedi, and consequently of 
Linnaeus, having serrated teeth, but with brilliant silvery bands 
on the sides; and which he names S. Rondeletii. 
Willoughby’s description is of a young one, having only one 
row of teeth, which are serrated; but he says they are distant 
from each other in the jaw; which remark can only refer to 
their very early condition, for each succeeding row is followed 
by another row, to close up the vacancies of that before it; 
so that when in the progress of growth they become pressed 
together, they overlap each other and become contiguous. 
I have already given in our general history of the Sharks, 
a short account of the manner in which the teeth of this order 
of fishes are formed, and finally proceed to their decay and 
VOL. I. F 
