156 Sturgeon, Distribution, Size. 



proneness for rummaging in muddy spots. But a few ascend 

 the smaller rivers and inlets from the Thames to the Suffolk 

 border. 



At Thorpe-le-Soken, which has a narrow communication 

 with Hamford Water, a small-sized one was taken in July, 

 1864 (Bree). One is chronicled as taken in the Colchester 

 Channel, May, 1700, being 8 feet 4 inches long and weighing 

 194 Ib. The Blackwater seems a favourite haunt, witness a 

 specimen secured near Beeleigh Mills, Maldon, and figured by 

 Donovan ; this weighed 131 Ib. Another, conjectured to be 

 \\ cwt., was captured alive at the Point between Heybridge 

 Basin and Maldon, 9th May, 1886 ; afterwards exhibited in 

 the Basin lock with a rope round its tail and hauled up to view 

 at Id. a head. Still another, a female scaling 212 Ib. and 

 7 feet 11 inches long, was hauled out of the " Smack 

 Hole," directly opposite our Chairman's residence, close to 

 Maldon, 15th May, 1890 (Fitch, Ess. Nat. IV.). A. Sexton 

 caught one very near the same spot, 6th June, 1898. Seen 

 alive (by Fitch), length 7 ft. 6 in., weight 192 Ib. In the 

 Crouch river, August, 1891, a dredgerman spied a Sturgeon near 

 Cliff Reach, Burnham. A loyal subject in 1879 sent to Her 

 Majesty the Queen, 21st June, a Royal fish 7 feet 9 inches long, 

 and weighing 132 Ib., which he had shot in the Medway above 

 Maidstone Bridge. Dr. Day (Brit. Fish) figures a specimen 

 5 feet 4 inches long obtained by the Margate fishermen. 



The smallest Thames one we know of was only 9 in. long 

 from eye to tip of tail, and was caught by T. Howlett while 

 angling at Charlton, near Woolwich, June, 1880.* Near 

 Westminster Bridge in May, 18G7, two boatmen landed one 7 feet 

 long and 60 Ib. weight. At the International Fisheries Exhi- 

 bition, July, 18S3, we saw a Sturgeon which had been captured 

 by some workmen off Erith as it floated down stream in a 

 stupified condition. f H. Mellish captured in Limehouse Reach, 

 Medway, Rochester, a sturgeon weighing 130 Ib., and 



* The Field, 9th April, 1881. t Harting, Zool., August, 1883. 



