MIGRATIONS. 107 



and thousands support themselves, and their 

 families ; and which, at certain periods, form 

 the food of millions. Of the proceedings of the 

 principal of these fishes, I shall now give a 

 brief account. 



I begin with one of the cartilaginous fishes 

 the Sturgeon. There are two noted species of 

 this fish, which is related to the shark, the one 

 is called the sturgeon 1 by way of eminence, and 

 the other the huso. 2 The latter is found only in 

 the Caspian and Black seas, and the Don, the 

 Volga, and other rivers that flow into them. It 

 is stated to be much larger than the sturgeon : 

 Pallas describes one that weighed 2800 pounds, 

 which it is conjectured must have been nearly 

 forty feet long. Its ordinary length is stated to 

 be twenty-five feet, which is the maximum of the 

 sturgeon. The numbers of this species far ex- 

 ceed those of the latter, the caviar is usually 

 made of its spawn, which equals nearly a third 

 of the weight of the whole fish, from whence we 

 may conjecture the infinite number of eggs that 

 it contains. Professor Pallas gives a very inter- 

 esting history of the manner in which these 

 enormous fish are taken in the Volga, and the 

 Saiek, which discharge their waters into the 

 Caspian. And it seems really wonderful that 

 so wild and illiterate a people as the Tartars, 



1 Accipenser Sturio. 2 A. Huso. 



