FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 75 



with two rows on each side, while the tail is of the "shark type," that is, with the 

 axis bent upward and upper lobe much longer than the lower, and the nose is long 

 and curiously depressed. 



Each buckler bears a longitudinal keel and spine, those of the dorsal series 

 being much larger than the others. On the average there are about li (10 to 16) 

 bucklers in the dorsal row, 28 (26 to 34) in each upper lateral row, and 9 to 14 in 

 each lower lateral row. The dorsal row extends from over the gill cover to the dorsal 

 fin; the upper lateral from the corner of the gill opening back to the base of the tail 

 fin; the lower lateral row from immediately behind the pectoral fin to the ventral 

 fin, and again from the latter to the anal fin. The single rather small triangular 

 dorsal fin is far back, its hind edge over that of the still smaller anal. The ventrals 

 are likewise far back. The pectorals are set almost as low as the plane of the belly. 



The body is elongate, comparatively slender and more or less pentagonal in 

 cross section owing to the rows of bucklers, instead of rounded as in most bony 

 fishes. In large fish the snout is about one-third the total length of the head (longer, 

 comparatively, in small ones) , depressed below the level of the forehead , and nearly 

 flat beneath. The mouth, which is situated on the under side of the snout, is small 

 and toothless (except in larval stages), with protractile lobed lips, and there are 

 four pointed barbels in a row across the lower surface of the snout in front of the 

 mouth. 



Fig. 32. — Sturgeon (Acipenser slurio) 



Color. — Olive greenish or bluish gray above (in some seas reddish above), 

 gradually fading on the sides and changing rather abruptly below the upper lateral 

 row of shields to the white of the belly. 



Size. — The sturgeon is a very large fish, specimens as long as 18 feet having 

 been recorded from Europe and from New England; nor are 10-foot cows uncom- 

 mon to-day in the Delaware River, where sturgeons are more plentiful than 

 they are anywhere in New England. As a rule adults taken there run from 6 

 to 10 feet in length, with about 7 feet as the maximum for the males. Females 

 weigh up to 350 pounds or more, while males average about 65 pounds in weight- 

 Sturgeons (male and females together) averaged about 120 pounds in the Kennebec 

 during the years when the fishery was carried on there. The fact that a fish between 

 1 1 and 12 feet long, taken near Helgoland in the North Sea, weighed 623 pounds 

 will give an idea of the weight they sometimes attain. 



General range. — Both sides of the North Atlantic, from Scandinavia to the 

 Mediterranean on the European coast and from the St. Lawrence River to the 

 Gulf of Mexico on the American coast. 01 



•' Also recorded by Prince from Hudson Bay (Report of the sixty-soventh meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, held at Toronto in August, 1897, p. 687). 



