190 AN INTERESTING RECLUSE. 



See, stream and shore and azure shoals admire, 



As swift they breast the tide, 

 And part the eddying waters, which recede 



To either grassy side. 



Sturgeon were caught in the Moselle in 1758. In 

 1782, two which were taken at Paris were transported 

 to Versailles, and presented to Louis XVI. As late as 

 1800 a sturgeon nourished in the fish-ponds at Mal- 

 maison, which had been captured at Neuilly. These 

 were common sturgeon, averaging six to eight feet in 

 length. A fish of this size, taken in the Loire, was 

 offered to Francis I. during his residence at Montargis. 



Sturgeon, like salmon, enter the rivers for the purpose 

 of depositing their spawn. Their fecundity is marvel- 

 lous : in an individual weighing only one and a half hun- 

 dredweight, 1,476,566 eggs have been counted. In oozy 

 estuaries they thrust their cartilaginous snout into the 

 mud, and find worms enough to satisfy an appetite 

 which is never voracious. Sometimes, we are told, one 

 of these fish will take possession of a particular locality, 

 and continue in it for years, defying all efforts at its 

 capture. One of these solitary recluses, says Badham, 

 long established his quarters at the mouth of a small 

 river on the Baian coast, and the sailors, do what they 

 would, could never take it its habit was to retire into 

 the ground-floor of a submarine villa, and thus success- 

 fully elude pursuit. 



Duly to estimate its commercial value, we must take 

 several data into consideration ; such as size, number, 

 extended range, the estimation in which its flesh is held, 

 and the important preparations made from its swim- 

 bladder and roe. As to its size, we have shown that 

 the larger fish weigh as much as three thousand pounds, 



