240 



HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



« There is made isinglass also from the swimming-bladder of the cat-fish, and of 

 some others ; but as this is very inferior to that from the sturgeon, it brings 

 scarcely $ 10 a hundred-weight. 



" The sturgeon is found in immense quantities in the United States and North 

 America, from Virginia up to the highest habitable northern latitudes, where they 

 ascend the rivers from three hundred to five hundred miles up. The Potomac, Dela- 

 ware, Hudson, and principally the Kennebec, as well as many other rivers, contain such 

 a quantity of sturgeons, that from those rivers alone, without counting those farther 

 north of Maine, according to my calculation, the annual export of pickled sturgeon, 

 caviare, and isinglass alone would be worth nearly half a million of dollars. Pickled 

 sturgeon and caviare is a favorite food of the descendants of Spain and Portugal 

 in South America, as well as of the inhabitants of the West India Islands, principally 

 during Lent; and isinglass would be an article of home consumption, as well as for 



the European market. 



" But the sturgeon is not a very favorite dish in our country ; it brings scarcely 

 five cents a pound in the market, and the roe and swimming-bladder are always 

 thrown away. Our fishermen, therefore, are not much encouraged in catching 

 these fishes, though, according to careful observations, from thirty thousand to forty 

 thousand sturgeons could be annually caught in the rivers of the United States. 



"The sturgeon was highly appreciated by the ancient Romans and Greeks. It 

 was the principal dish at all great dinner-parties, and Cicero reproached epicures 

 on account of their spending so much money for this fish. Pliny says that this 

 fish was served at the most sumptuous tables, and always carried by servants, 

 crowned with garlands of flowers, and accompanied by a band of musicians. And 

 even at this time one pound of fresh sturgeon costs $ 4 in Rome, where this fish 



is very rare." 



Massachusetts, Storer. Connecticut, Ayres, Linsley. New York, Mitchill, 



Dekay. 



