34: JISHES AND FISHING. 



heaviest I believe on record in England, was one 

 taken in the river Lea, weighing nineteen pounds. 

 But Cuvier says, in localities favourable to them, 

 they will grow to ten feet long. In the Danube, 

 during the autumnal equinox, ten to twelve tons are 

 annually taken. 



In the Volga, a river of Russian Tartary, the 

 largest river in Europe, and which I shall have occa 

 sion hereafter to mention, barbel are taken more than 

 four or five feet long, weighing from thirty to fifty 

 pounds ; the air bladder of these fish the natives on 

 the banks convert into an inferior kind of fish-glue, 

 or isinglass ; their roe they either throw away, or 

 boil and feed their geese and other poultry with it ; 

 for though it is inimical to the human race, it is not 

 injurious to birds of any kind. Barbels are sold there 

 at about nine pounds, English, per thousand. 



The beljugas were sold at Astrachan at so much a 

 hundred pieces, which are thus reckoned : a fish of 

 eighteen to thirty- six inches long, from eye to tail, 

 is reckoned as one piece ; those under eighteen inches 

 long, two for one piece; one of thirty-six inches 

 counts as two pieces; thirty-nine inches for three 

 pieces, forty- two for four pieces, and so on. A hun 

 dred of such pieces of this fish at the first hand then 

 sold for seventy or seventy-five roubles, or 15 15s., 

 to 16 17s. 6d. Sewrjugs, without being measured, 



