72 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



the lakes of nine-foot sturgeons. The average of the mature ones taken 

 is less than five feet. 



(24(7.) lumbers. — In numbers they will not compare favorably with 

 any of the staple food -fishes. At Sandusky, Ohio, where they are more 

 numerous than in any other locality, except, perhaps. Green Bay, Wis., 

 there were about fourteen thousand mature sturgeons handled, weighing 

 about seven hundred thousand pounds, obtained from about eighty-five 

 pound-nets. 



(24/i.) Economical value. — As an article of food they are not generally 

 popular. But few people in the cities know the modes of cooking that 

 make their meat a palatable dish. A certain quantity is disposed of 

 fresh by the peddlers. With the Canadian-French people of the lake- 

 shores they are in demand, and are prepared in the form of soups, 

 {bouillon.) With a good, hearty out-door appetite, this is very palatable 

 food, but too rich in the flavor of the oil of the fish for ordinary use. 

 The flavor of sturgeon-meat has very little of the taste of fish, and the 

 bouillon, when carefully prepared by skimming oft" the oil, is very much 

 like chicken-soup. A very good pickled meat is made of it by boiling 

 it and preserving it in vinegar. 



But the best form of preparing sturgeon is by smoking it. The 

 smoking of sturgeon-meat has been done at difierent points of the 

 lakes on a small scale, but is only carried on to a large extent by 

 Schacht Brothers, of Sandusky, Ohio. The method employed by this 

 firm is the following: The sturgeons are skinned and the viscera 

 taken away. The thick parts are then cut into strips, and after a slight 

 pickling in brine are smoked over a close fire. The thin portions and 

 offal are boiled down for oil; the spawn is made into caviare; and 

 from the bladders isinglass is manufactured. 



The smoked sturgeon is a most palatable meat, and is quite popular, 

 making an excellent substitute for smoked halibut, and, in the opinion 

 of a great many, having some qualities superior. 



The caviare is made by i)ressing the ova through sieves, leaving the 

 membranes of the ovaries remaining in the sieve, and the eggs falling 

 through into a tub. This is continued until the eggs are entirely free 

 from particles of membrane, when they are put into a salt-pickle and 

 allowed to remain for some time. Nearly all the caviare is shipped to 

 Europe while in the salted condition. [For full account of manufac- 

 ture, see appendix ; Account of Fisheries and Phoca hunting, &c.] 



Mr. Schacht says they use from ten to eighteen thousand sturgeon a 

 year, receiving during 1872 thirteen thousand eight hundred and eighty, 

 averaging fifty pounds each. Before this firm began their work, the 

 sturgeon taken by the nets were uselessly destroyed or sold by the 

 wagon-load for a trifle, just as is the case in Green Bay, Wis., at the 

 present time. The firm at Sandusky settled at that point only a 

 few years ago, bringing with them but a small amount of money. They 

 now own their curing-house, wa.rehouse, and freezing-house, all neat, well- 



