ACCIPENSER. 119 



ruthemas, a small species of sturgeon. " When 

 brought alive in summer, from Archangel to Mos- 

 cow and St Petersburg, they have been known to 

 cost from five hundred to a thousand roubles each. 

 A soup prepared from the sturgeon, commingled 

 with the most expensive wines, according to the 

 same narrator, has cost three thousand roubles." 



In the time of the Emperor Severus, the stur- 

 geon was considered so much of a royal dish, that 

 it was carried to the table by servants adorned with 

 coronets, and escorted by musicians. This may have 

 been the origin of a ceremony once practised in Lon- 

 don, on lord-mayor's day, — the mayor elect be- 

 ing obliged to present the king or his proxy with 

 a platter of sturgeon. 



In English Law it is still considered as exclu- 

 sively belonging to the king, — who also is enti- 

 tled by an ancient, grave, parliamentary conces- 

 sion, to all whales which may be cast on the sea- 

 shore of the realm, — to be equally divided be- 

 tween his majesty and his royal spouse ; — the 

 head, as the most noble part, being for the king, 

 and the tail for the queen ; out of which she was 

 to be supplied with whalebone for making her 

 stays. This was particularly an unfortunate divis- 

 ion for her majesty, as the whole of the article in 

 question is found in the jaws. 



The Indians of America used their bones, or 



