642 



A HISTORY OF 



however, a considerable merchandise among 

 the Turks, Greeks, and Venetians. Caviar 

 somewhat resembles soft soap in consistence; 

 but it is of a brown, uniform colour, and is 

 eaten as cheese with bread. The manner of 

 making it is this : they take the spawn from 

 the body of the sturgeon for it is to be ob- 

 served, the sturgeon differs from other car- 

 tilaginous fish, in that it has spawn like a cod, 

 and not eggs like a ray. They take the spawn, 

 I say, and freeing it from the small membranes 

 that connect it together, they wash it with 

 vinegar, and afterwards spread it to dry upon 

 a table; they then put it into a vessel with 

 salt, breaking the spawn with their hands, and 

 not with a pestle ; this done, they put it into 

 a canvas bag, letting the liquor drain from 

 it; lastly, they put it into a tub, with holes in 

 the bottom, so that, if there be any moisture 

 still remaining, it may run out : then it is press- 

 ed down, and covered up close for use. 



But the Huso or Isinglass fish furnishes a 

 still more valuable commodity. This fish is 

 caught in great quantities in the Danube, 

 from the month of October to January : it is 

 seldom under fifty pounds weight, and often 

 above four hundred : its flesh is soft, gluti- 

 nous, and flabby ; but it is sometimes salted, 

 which makes it better tasted, and then it turns 

 red like salmon. It is for the commodity it 

 furnishes that it is chiefly taken. Isinglass is 

 of a whitish substance, inclining to yellow, 

 done up into rolls, and so exported for use. 

 It is very well known as serviceable, riot only 

 in medicine, but many arts. The varnisher, 

 the wine-merchant, and even the clothier, 

 know its uses; and very great sums are 

 yearly expended upon this single article of 

 commerce. The manner of making it is this: 

 they take the skin, the entrails, the fins, and 



the tail of this fish, and cut them into small 

 pieces ; these are left to macerate in a suffi- 

 cient quantity of warm water, and they are 

 all boiled shortly after with a slow fire, until 

 they are dissolved and reduced to a jelly; 

 this jelly is spread upon instruments made for 

 the purpose, so, that drying, it assumes the 

 form of parchment, and, when quite dry, it is 

 then rolled into the form which we see it in 

 the shops. 



This valuable commodity is principally 

 furnished from Russia, where they prepare 



Jreat quantities surprisingly cheap. Mr. 

 ackson, an ingenious countryman of our 

 own, found out an obvious method of making 

 a glue at home that answered all the purposes 

 of isinglass ; but what with the trouble of 

 making it, and perhaps the arts put in prac- 

 tice to under-sell him, he was, as I am told, 

 obliged to discontinue the improvement of 

 his discovery. Indeed, it is a vain attempt 

 to manufacture among ourselves those things 

 which may be more naturally and cheaply 

 supplied elsewhere. We have many trades 

 that are unnaturally, if I may so express it, 

 employed among us; who furnish more labo- 

 riously those necessaries with which other 

 countries could easily and cheaply supply 

 us. It would be wiser to take what they can 

 thus produce; and to turn ourartizans to the 

 increase and manufacture of such productions 

 as thrive more readily among us. Were, for 

 instance, the number of hands that we have 

 now employed in the manufacture of silk, 

 turned to the increase of agriculture, it is 

 probable that the increased quantity of corn 

 thus produced, would be more than an 

 equivalent for the diminution of national 

 wealth in purchasing wrought silk from other 

 countries. 



CHAPTER CXLVII. 



OF ANOMALOUS CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 



OF all others, the Cartilaginous class 

 seems to abound with the greatest variety of 

 ill-formed animals ; and. if philosophy could 



allow the expression, we might say, that the 

 cartilaginous class was the class of monsters; 

 in fact, it exhibits a variety of shapeless be- 



