File:Creatures of the sea (microform) - being the life stories of some sea birds, beasts, and fishes (1909) (20651335931).jpg

Title: Creatures of the sea (microform) : being the life stories of some sea birds, beasts, and fishes
Identifier: cihm_72251 (find matches)
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Bullen, Frank Thomas, 1857-1915
Subjects: Marine animals; Marine fishes; Faune marine; Poissons de mer
Publisher: Toronto : McClelland & Goodchild
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Curious Sharks 107 the use of which one can only conjecture, and Sharks whose vast jaws are hned within with a sort of curious mosaic of pearly surface, as if the mouth were a mill in which could be ground or triturated the most obstinate substances. Indeed, the arrangement of these palatal and labial plates in some of the Sharks is a matter for profoundest admiration. Nothing like it can be seen in any other animal in the wide world. Then there is the wondrous Saw-fish (Prislis), a most amazing Shark, abounding in Eastern seas, who has grown from his skull, right out before him, a flat mass of stiff cartilage edged with ivory teeth, set at regular intervals of about three quarters of an inch. For some strange reason, which I do not pretend to fathom, this curious weapon has come to be confounded with the sword of the Sword-fish (Xiphias), which I have already described, and in country houses where there are one or two specimens hanging in the hall, the visitor is calmly invited to view the weapon with which ships are sunk ! No one seems to consider that even if the saw (not sword) were made of tempered steel, instead of stiffened cartilage, it would be impossible for any force behind it to drive it into anything tougher than fat, because there is no point to it; a sort of snout, slightly turned up at the end, terminates it; and again, the saw-like arrangement of the teeth on each side of it preclude the idea of its being a piercing weapon. No, its function, though gruesome enough, is not that of sinking ships by perforating their bilges. This particular shark has a wide mouth, lined with from forty to sixty rows of infinitesimal, needle-like teeth. He is a specialist in food, and although not averse to mumbling decaying carrion, should it come his way, has a pleasant little fashion of disembowelling II-f II. i »; I
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