74 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Caught in nets How killed by the Indians. 



As sturgeons are not voracious fish, they are 

 never caught by baits, but in nets composed of 

 small cords, and placed across the mouth of the 

 river, but in such a manner, that whether the 

 tide ebbs or flows, the pouch of the net goes 

 with the stream. In some rivers of Virginia, the 

 sturgeons are found in such numbers that six 

 hundred have been taken in two days, with no 

 more trouble than putting down a pole, with a 

 hook at the end, to the bottom, and drawing it 

 up again, on feeling it rub. against a fish. They 

 are, however, chiefly killed in the night with 

 harpoons, attracted by the light of torches made 

 of the wood of the black pine. On the shores 

 are frequently seen the bodies of sturgeons that 

 have been wounded with the spears, and have 

 afterwards expired. 



The Indians often kill them in the lakes in the 

 day-time. For this purpose there are usually two 

 men in a canoe, one at the stern to work it for- 

 ward, and the other at the head, with a pointed 

 gpear about fourteen feet long, tied to a long 

 cord that is fastened to one of the cross timbers 

 of the canoe. The moment a sturgeon is seen 

 within reach, the man at the head darts his spear 

 into the tenderest part of the body that he can 

 reach ; and if it penetrate, the iish swims off with 

 astonishing velocity, dragging the canoe along 

 the water aftrr it. If, however, the blow be 

 pretty well aimed, the fish does not go more 

 thau two or three hundred yards before he 



