THE COMMON STURGEON. 203 



The Indians often fish for them in the lakes in 

 the day-time. For this purpose there are usually 

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

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

 spear 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 fish swims off with astonishing 

 velocity, dragging the canoe along the water after 

 it. If, however, the blow has been pretty well 

 aimed, the fish does not go more than two or three 

 hundred yards before he dies 3 when the men draw- 

 up the line and take him*. Sometimes, when Stur- 

 geons are seen to lie at the bottom of the still water 

 near the cataracts, they are struck with a spear 

 without a rope, their place being marked, on their 

 rising, by the appearance of the shaft above the 

 water f. 



The Sturgeon annually ascends our rivers, in the 

 summer, particularly those of the Eden and Esk, 

 but in no great numbers. It is- so spritless a fish 

 that, when caught by accident, as it sometimes is, 

 in the Salmon nets, it scarcely makes any resist- 

 ance, but is drawn out of the water apparently 

 lifeless. One of the largest ever caught in our 

 rivers was taken in the Esk, about twenty-six years 

 ago; it weighed four hundred and sixty pounds J. 



Charlevoix, i. 236. f Catesby. 



X Ptnn. Brit. Zool. iii. 126. 



