THE STURGEOjS'. 225 



compartment, and by making a noise on the surface of the 

 water the tunnies are soon driven into it. As soon as the 

 whole have been got into this compartment, the inner door 

 of the " hall " is again closed, and the outer entrance is 

 opened to receive more fishes. This last compartment of 

 network is called the " chamber of death." This is com- 

 posed of stronger nets and heavier anchors than the others. 



As soon as a sufficient number of tunny-fish has been col- 

 lected here, the slaughter begins. The fishermen attack 

 the poor defenceless animals on all sides, who dash the 

 water about in their efibrts to escape, but are at length sub- 

 dued, and yield themselves a prey to their conquerors. 



*' There is something," says a witness of this fish massa- 

 cre, " extremely exciting in seeing the wholesale capture of 

 a herd of these great black fish, intermixed, as they gener- 

 ally are, with the forms of many of their large congeners, 

 and occasionally with a sword-fish or a dolphin besides ; and 

 no one ever left the spot after one of these enormous hauls 

 without feeling that, however superior the whale fishery 

 may be in enterprise, it cannot yield its votaries half the 

 pleasures or charms of these scenes." 



A very questionable kind of pleasure, however, we think 

 it must be to many, to see the agonies and the butchery 

 which must necessarily take place on these occasions. 



The Sturgeon fishery is carried on to a very considerable 

 extent in the Russian dominions on the coasts of the Caspian 

 and Aral Seas. They are caught in an enclosure formed by 

 large stakes, representing the letter Z repeated several 

 times. These fisheries are open on the side nearest the sea, 

 and closed on the other, by which means the fish, ascending 

 in its season up the rivers, are caught in these narrow an- 

 gular retreats, and are easily killed. The Hon. Captain 

 Keppell, describing the method of catching sturgeon in the 

 fishery of Karmaizack, says: 



" Two persons are in each boat : one (generally a female) 



