Squalus .-- Lin.

Syst.

Nat.
PORT JACKSON SHARK.
The length of the specimen from which the drawing was taken, is two feet; and it is about five inches and an half over at the broadest part, from thence tapering to the tail: the skin is rough, and the colour, in general, brown, palest on the under parts: over the eyes on each side is a prominence, or long ridge, of about three inches; under the middle of which the eyes are placed: the teeth are very numerous, there being at least ten or eleven rows; the forward teeth are small and sharp, but as they are placed more backward, they become more blunt and larger, and several rows are quite flat at top, forming a kind of bony palate, somewhat like that of the Wolf-fish; differing, however, in shape, being more inclined to square than round, which they are in that fish: the under jaw is furnished much in the same manner as the upper: the breathing holes are five in number, as is usual in the genus: on the back are two fins, and before each stands a strong spine, much as in the Prickly Hound, or Dog, fish: it has also two pectoral, and two ventral fins; but besides these, there is likewise an anal fin, placed at a middle distance between the last and the tail: the tail itself, is as it were divided, the upper part much longer than the under.
At first sight, the above might be taken for the Prickly Hound-fish, or Squalus Spinax of Linnoeus, of which a good figure may be seen in Willughby's Icthyol.Tab.

B.5.f.

1, but it differs, first, in having the prominent ridge over the eyes, of a great length; secondly, in the formation of the teeth; thirdly, in having an anal fin, of which the Prickly Hound is destitute; all these circumstances concur to prove it a new species.
This was taken at Port Jackson, but to what size it may usually arrive cannot be determined; perhaps not to a great one, as the teeth appear very complete.