434 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
“ There is made isinglass also from the swimming-bladder of the cat-fish, and of 
some others; but as this is very inferior to that from the sturgeon, it brings 
scarcely $10 a hundred-weight. - 
“The sturgeon is found in immense quantities in the United States and North 
America, from Virginia up to the highest habitable northern latitudes, where they 
ascend the rivers from three hundred to five hundred miles up. The Potomac, Dela- 
ware, Hudson, and principally the Kennebec, as well as many other rivers, contaiu such 
a quantity of sturgeons, that from those rivers alone, without counting those farther 
north of Maine, according. to my calculation, the annual export of pickled sturgeon, 
caviare, and isinglass alone would be worth nearly half a million of dollars. Pickled 
sturgeon and caviare is a favorite food of the descendants of Spain and Portugal 
in South America, as well as of the inhabitants of the West India Islands, principally 
during Lent; and isinglass would be an article of home consumption, as well as for 
the European market. 
* But the sturgeon is not a very favorite dish in our country; it brings scarcely 
five cents a pound in the market, and the roe and swimming-bladder are always 
thrown away. Our fishermen, therefore, are not much encouraged in catching 
these fishes, though, according: to careful observations, from thirty thousand to forty 
thousand sturgeons could be annually caught in the rivers of the United States. 
“The sturgeon was highly appreciated by the ancient Romans and Greeks. It 
was the principal dish at all great dinner-parties, and Cicero reproached epicures 
on account of their spending so much money for this fish. Pliny says that this’ 
fish was served at the most sumptuous tables, and always carried by servants, 
crowned with garlands of flowers, and accompanied by a band of musicians. And 
even at this time one pound of fresh sturgeon costs $ 4 in Rome, where this fish 
is very rare." 
Massachusetts, Srorer. Connecticut, Ayres, LiwsLeY. New York, Mirom, 
Dekar. : 
