1 84 RETURN TO KERTCH. 



caught in the lake between Taman and Turneruk. 

 They were for the most part carp, huge fellows 

 weighing from 25 to 30 Ibs., and one of the fisher- 

 men told me they were frequently caught up to 

 40 Ibs. in weight. There were sturgeon too, from 

 the mouth of the Kuban, caught, so they said, in 

 snares, something after the fashion of our ordinary 

 rabbit snares, as they routed with their noses pig- 

 like along the bottom of the stream. There were 

 too ' sudak ' ( Sandre), an excellent fish for the table, 

 and the hideous ' som ' (Silurus) largest, I believe, 

 of Caucasian fresh-water fishes. This whiskered 

 water-fiend plays the part of the pike in the Cau- 

 casian lakes and rivers, feeding on all other fish, 

 and anything else in fact that he can find. From 

 what I have seen I should say the pil*e was rare in 

 the Caucasus, having only once sen one, and that a 

 very small specimen, near the Caspian. The ugliness 

 of the ' som ' has led the inventive mind of the Rus- 

 sian moujik to create all sorts of legends regarding 

 him, such as his laying hold of the limbs of horses 

 and cattle as they crossed fords near which lie was 

 lying; and even of his seizing, and thereby drown- 

 ing, a man under similar circumstances. They tell 

 too of his growing to vast proportions ; one Rus- 

 sian colonel, whose home is in the Red Forest, 

 claiming, and being commonly reported, to have shot 

 one with his rifle while basking in the Kuban, 

 where it passes through the Crasnoi Lais, which 



