THE PASSING OF THE STURGEON 367 



fishery as compared with ten years before, accounts for the greater 

 yield for the country in 1890. 



Statistics of the sturgeon fisheries in the scattered inland waters of 

 the country were collected for the first time in 1895 and added a little 

 over 2,250,000 pounds to the total. 29 The major portion, over two 

 thirds, of this quantity came from a single area — the Minnesota waters 

 of the Lake of the Woods. The same year showed continued large 

 catches in the waters of Washington and Oregon, though a comparison 

 of the totals with the figures for a few years before indicates a growing 

 scarcity of fish and an impending decline. 30 The Carolinas and 

 Georgia, however, were again yielding as much as formerly, having 

 recovered at least temporarily from the low condition of 1890. The 

 activity in these three areas helped to offset the appalling decline which 

 had continued uninterrupted in the lake region and the Delaware dis- 

 trict, as indicated by the statistical surveys of 1897. The lakes in 

 1897 produced scarcely more than one fourth as much as they had in 

 1890, and New Jersey, which alone had yielded over 3,600,000 pounds 

 in 1890, barely exceeded 1,000,000 pounds seven years later. 31 On 

 account of these tremendous losses in the supply from the waters of 

 early importance, the total yield of the country had fallen only a little 

 more than half a million pounds below the figures for 1880, but over 

 a million and a half pounds below the total for 1890, and at least six 

 million pounds below the catch of 1885. 



Two factors had played a leading part in maintaining the industry 

 against such odds as are represented in the depletion of the Great 

 Lakes and Delaware Eiver sturgeon. First of all the rising price of 

 caviar was a powerful incentive to pursue sturgeon fishing with in- 

 creasing vigor wherever a profitable catch could be made. Caviar 

 which had brought from $9 to $12 per keg of 135 pounds in 1885, was 

 worth $20 five years later, $40 in 1894, and before the end of that 

 decade had risen above $100 per keg. 32 Sturgeon roe was no longer 

 fish bait and feed for hogs, and few sturgeon found their way to the 

 offal heap, at least, until after the precious ova were removed. Flesh 

 too was mounting upwards in price, reaching as high as 12y 2 cents per 

 pound in 1896, where a decade and a half before sale had often been 

 impossible at even one cent per pound. From 1882 to 1884 female 

 sturgeon would bring as high as $2 each at the wharf, whereas fifteen 

 years later the usual price was $30 to $35 each. In the spring of 

 1899, for example, 96 sturgeon at Bayside, New Jersey, brought $3,923, 

 an average of a little over $40 apiece. 33 Nowhere else in the whole 



29 U. S. Fish Commission Report, 1895, p. 495. 



80 U. S. Fish Commission Report, 1896, p. 576. 



81 Bureau of Fisheries Report, 1902, p. 460. 



82 U. S. Fish Commission Report, 1899, p. 379. 



83 Pennsylvania Fish Commission Report, 1900, p. 171. 



