Squalus spinosus

Abstract

ON the 9th inst. the fishermen of Durgan, in Helford Harbour, sent for me to look at a fish new to them, which had been caught (with a ½d. hook) on the preceding night near its entrance. Congers had been numerous, but suddenly ceased to bite. The fish (a spinous shark) had been hooked in the corner of its mouth, out of the reach of its sharp teeth, had wound the line many times round its body, which was 7 ft. in length, and 30 in. in girth, being longer and more slender than one of which I sent a notice to the Royal Cornwall Institution 38 years ago. The back, sprinkled over with spines, was of a dark grey colour, the belly nearly white. It was a male fish. The lobes of the liver were 4 ft. in length. In the stomach was a partially digested dogfish, 2 ft. long. The upper lobe of the tail was muscular and long, perhaps to aid its ground feeding, the lower lobe more marked than in Dr. A. Smith's drawing, as given by Yarrel, and entirely unlike that of the Filey Bay specimen. Twelve hours or more after its capture, when all external signs of life had disappeared, I was surprised to observe the regular pulsations of the heart.