STURGEONS, 153 



But by the evidence of an intelligent fisherman, reported by 

 Gesner, these plates are also on some occasions converted 

 into weapons of oiFcnce; and he had seen them used as such 

 against the Huso, another fish of this family, of a still larger 

 size than the Common Sturgeon but of a very timid nature, 

 and against which the latter species is supposed to bear an 

 instinctive animosity. The skin of the Huso is without any 

 of those plates with which others of this family are defended, 

 and it has been seen therefore to suffer severely from the rough 

 treatment of those cutting and tearing instruments brought 

 into action by its enemy, from which it has sought in vain to 

 escape by plunging in all directions. 



Nor is the internal organization of this family of fishes less 

 a departure from the usual type of the Sharks, while still 

 here also remains some degree of likeness, at least in the 

 j)resence of a spiral valve to the intestine; by which organi- 

 zation the functional power is lengthened out, whilst the bulk 

 of the organ is packed into the smallest space its nature 

 admits of. 



These fishes neither deposit their eggs in purses nor pro- 

 duce their young alive; but their roe consists of small grains, 

 which they shed in the same manner as bony fishes, in the 

 fresh- water of the larger rivers; which they enter for that 

 purpose, and in particular districts, especially of the south of 

 Russia and the Caspian Sea, in enormous multitudes, in con- 

 sequence of which extensive and flourishing fisheries are 

 established for taking them. Their productiveness may be 

 judged from the fact that, according to Pallas, ("Second Travels," 

 vol. i,) of the three species fished for seventeen hundred and 

 fifty .thousand have been caught in one year. Fifteen thousand 

 have been taken in a day by one method of fishing; and, 

 what is still more remarkable, if the fishermen should have 

 been accidentally prevented from working during a single day, 

 the fish have been known to accumulate in such numbers at 

 the weir, as to fill the whole channel; insomuch that those 

 which were ujjpermost appeared with their backs above water, 

 in a river not less than twenty-eight English feet deep, and 

 sixty fathoms wide. 



With such numbers it may be concluded that Stui-geons of 

 the different sorts are highly ]3rolific; and Adolph Erman, in 



VOL. I. Z 



