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and the throat extremely wide: the eyes, as in most of the genus, of a blueish or greenish cast, rather small, and half overhung 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 terminal lobe rather rounded: so great is the strength of this part, that even a young shark, 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 instant they drag a shark on board: the anal fin is placed somewhat beyond the middle of the abdomen, and is of a 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 auimal is said like most others of this genus, to be obliged to turn on its back in order to seize its prey; an observation as ancient as the days of Pliny, "resupinati vorant: affert moram providentia Nature, quia nisi resupini atque conversi, non corripiunt." Plin. lib. 9. c. 8. This, however, is much doubted by Dr. Bloch, who rather supposes the shark to seize its prey in a direct position, or like the generality of fishes. The skin of the shark is very rough, and is used as a kind of shagreen, as well as for smoothing various kinds of wood-work, &c. and from the liver is drawn a great quantity of oil.

"Sharks," says Mr. Pennant," are the dread of sailors in all hot climates, where they constantly 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 unremitting 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 forming a proper escort to the cruel conductors of those most accursed vessels. "A master of a Guinea-ship," says Pennant," informed me, that a rage of suicide prevailed among his new-bought slaves, from a notion the unhappy creatures had, that after death, they should be restored to their fa.

milies, 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 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 short space, the sharks had de. voured every part but the feet, which were secured at the end of the cord." Swimmers very often perish by them: sometimes they lose an arm or a leg, and sometimes are bit quite asunder, serving but for two morsels for this ravenous animal: a melancholy tale of this kind, is recited in a West-Indian ballad, preserved in Dr. Percy's Reliques of ancient English Poetry.

The size to which the Shark sometimes grows, is far superior to that mentioned in the former part of the present description: we are informed by Gillius, that a shark was seen of the weight of four thousand pounds, and that in the belly of one was found an entire human body; and Muller asserts, that in a shark taken at the isle of St. Margaret, was found a horse, which had probably been thrown overboard from some ship. The size of the fossil teeth of this spe. cies, so often found in the isle of Malta, and elsewhere, affords a convincing proof of the enormous specimens which have once ex. isted. In the British Museum are teeth of this kind, measuring at least four inches and a half from the point to the base, and six inches from the point to the corner: the animal, therefore, to which such teeth belonged, must have been equal to the largest of the cetacea in volume, and we may well admit the probability of a human body being swallowed by such a fish, not only entire, but without a wound; and on this supposition it is that the shark has been imagined by some to have been the fish ordained for the temporary confinement of the prophet Jonas +.

The internal parts of the shark present many remarkable particu lars the brain is small: the heart furnished with one ventricle, and one auricle, which latter is of a very large size, and receives the vena cava; the aorta, and other arteries, are of great strength;

• The shark does not spare even its own species. A Laplander, according 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 afterwards he caught a second of much larger size, in which, when opened, he found the one he had lost. + Jonam prophetam, ut veteres Herculem trinoctem, in hujus ventriculo tridui spatio hæ sisse verosimile est. Lin. Syst. Nat.

the throat is very short, and of a diameter not greatly inferior to that of the beginning of the stomach, which is of vast size, and dilat. able to a great degree: the intestinal canal consists of two portions; one analogous to the small, and the other to the large intestines of quadrupeds; but this latter portion is very short in proportion, and is so composed as to compensate by its interior structure for its brevity; since instead of forming a mere continued tube, as in most animals, it consists rather of a large series of meshes or divisions, placed in a spiral direction throughout its length: the liver is large, and divided into two unequal lobes: in the stomach and intestines, according to Commerson, are usually found a great many taniæ, or tape-worms, which not only infest the cavities of these parts, but even penetrate into and lodge themselves between the interior coats: these ani. mals therefore, by their vellication and motions, must be supposed to aggravate the natural voracity of the shark, and to impel it to engorge a large quantity of food, in order to 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 a similar length during 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 favourable 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 before the young animal has had time to break from it: the length of the newly-hatched shark does not exseed that of a few inches. [Dr. Rondell. Pennant. Shaw,

CHAP. V.

AMPHIBIALA.

Amphibia-LINN.

SECTION I.

Land Tortoise.

Testudo græca.

THE HE common or Greek Tortoise is supposed to be a native of almost all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean sea; and is thought to be more frequent in Greece than in other regions. It is found in the scattered European islands of the Archipelago, and in Corsica and Sardinia. It occurs likewise in many parts of Africa, In Greece, according to Forskal," it forms an article of food; and the inhabitants often swallow the blood recent, and eat the eggs boiled, which are about the size of those of a pigeon, four or five in number, and of a white colour. In September the animal hides itself under ground, and again emerges in February; laying its eggs in June, in a small hole, which it scratches in some sunny spot, out of which after the first rains of September, the young are hatched, which are about the size of a walnut. The males of this species are said to fight often, butting at each other with such force as to be heard at a considerable distance."

The general length of the shell of this species is from six to eight inches, which latter measure it rarely exceeds: the weight of the full-grown animal is about forty-eight ounces. The shell is of an oval form, extremely convex on the upper part, and composed, as in most others, of thirteen middle pieces, and about twenty-five marginal ones: the middle pieces, or those constituting the disk of the shield, are mostly of an oblong square form, and of a blackish or dark brown colour, varied by a broad yellow or citron band

* When kept in gardens in Italy and Germany, it is observed to latibulize in October, and to reappear in April. In England it retires about the end of October, and reappears about the middle of April; but these periods seem to differ in all countries, according to the temperature of the weather, &c.

running along one side of each, and continued about half way along the upper part: there is also an oblong patch of a similar colour, running down the lower part or side of each; and on the top or centre of each piece is an obscurely square or oblong space, rather more depressed than the rest, and marked, as in many other tortoise-shells, with roughish spots or granules: several furrows, more or less distinct in different individuals, appear traced round the sides of each piece, becoming gradually less distinct as they approach the upper part or space just mentioned. The colours of the shell are more or less bright in the different specimens, and are subject, as well as even the shape of the pieces themselves, to some occasional variations; and when very old, the shell becomes much smoother than in the younger animals, the sulci or furrows, as well as the areolæ or spaces on the top of each scutellum or piece, being almost obliterated. The under or belly part of the shell is of a citron or pale yellow colour, with a broad blackish or deep-brown zone down each side, leaving the middle part plain. The head is rather small than large; the eye small and black; the mouth not extending beyond the eyes; the upper part of the head covered with somewhat irregular, tough scales, and the neck with sinaller granulatious, so as to be flexible at the pleasure of the animal. The legs are short, and the feet moderately broad, covered with strong ovate scales, and commonly furnished with four mode. rately stout claws on each; but this is a circumstance which cannot be allowed to constitute a part of the specific character, since in different individuals, either from age, or other circumstances, these parts are found to vary in number, there being sometimes five claws instead of four on the fore feet. The tail is about the same

length with the legs, or rather shorter, and is covered with small scales, and terminates in a naked horny pointed tip or process. This animal lives to a most extraordinary age; several well attested examples being adduced of its having considerably exceeded the period of a century. One of the most remarkable instances is that of a tortoise introduced into the archiepiscopal garden at Lambeth, in the time of Archbishop Laud, and as near as can be collected from its history, about the year 1633, which continued to live there till the year 1753, when it was supposed to have perished ra. ther from accidental neglect on the part of the gardener, than from the mere effect of age. This tortoise has had the honour of

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