A Strange Fish.

Kaikoura Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 22, 17 March 1938, Page 4

A Strange Fish.

Mr 11. R. Miller, of Avoca Street. Kaikoura, is in receipt of the following letter from the curator of the Canterbury Museum:—“The shark jaws and short description contained in your letter have proved to be most interesting. Professor Percival and I have examined the teeth and have come to the conclusion that the jaws belong to a shark of the genus somniosus. The only wellknown species of this genus is the Greenland or Sleeper Shark of Arctic seas. Some years ago a pair of jaws of a similar shank were brought back from Macquarie Island, south of Xew Zealand, and this constitutes the only previous record of a Sleeeper Shark from the southern hemisphere. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the whole fish was not preserved or at least a photograph of it taken. A our knowledge of the commoner fish of the coast must be so extensive that we would always be prepared to pay freight on any specimen that you thought unusual, or alternatively Professor Percival or 1 would try to go through to Kaikoura to sec any rarities. I have not yet examined the small crustaceans carefully but they appeal- to be two growth stages of crayfish. 1 shall let you know more definitely later on. 7 ’