628 SUPPLEMENT ON 



very considerably, as it is sometimes found twenty feet in 

 length. 



The great sturgeon deposits its spawn early in the spring, 

 and for that purpose ascends the rivers with the common 

 sturgeon, in the middle and latter part of winter, while these 

 remain frozen. The eggs are deposited in surprising num- 

 bers in stony places, where the current is most rapid. After 

 spawning, they return to the sea, and the young seem to 

 follow almost as soon as they quit the egg, few or none being 

 found in the rivers during the winter and autumn. It is 

 more voracious than its common congener, and attacks not 

 merely all fish that are not too large for its limited mouth, 

 but also water-birds, &c. ; besides which, it eats water 

 plants, and is said to grub them up by the roots in the 

 manner of hogs. 



This fish seems to suffer from the extreme cold of the 

 latitudes it inhabits ; as in the depth of winter many of them 

 get together into holes and cavities in the banks, in which 

 situation they may possibly preserve something more of the 

 little animal heat they possess. Here they take but little 

 food, and according to the fishermen, they then suck and lick 

 the viscous humour exuded from each others' bodies. 



It is more especially with the eggs of the females of this 

 species, that the inhabitants of the countries where the stur- 

 geons abound prepare the caviar before mentioned, which is 

 more or less esteemed, according to the quality of the mate- 

 rials of which it is made, and the method of making ; that 

 from the acipenser ruthenus of Lin. being the best, but 

 that from the species now under consideration the most 

 abundant. We need not be so much surprised at the profu- 

 sion with which this food is spread over the northern parts of 

 the old world, when we consider the extraordinary dimensions 

 of this fish, and the still more extraordinary dimensions of the 



