168 COMMON STURGEON. Class IV. 



Dkscrip- The sturgeon grows to a great size, to the 

 length of eighteen feet, and to the weight of five 

 hundred pounds, but it is seldom taken in our 

 rivers of that bulk. The largest we have known 

 caught in those of Great Britain weighed four 

 hundred and sixty pounds, which was taken 

 about two years ago in the Esk, where they are 

 more frequently found than in our southern 

 waters. 



The nose is very long, slender, and ends in a 

 point ; the eyes are extremely small ; the nos- 

 trils placed near them : on the lower part of 

 the nose are four cirri or beards ; the mouth is 

 situated far beneath, is small, and unsupported 

 by any jaw-bones ; neither has it any teeth. 

 The mouth of a dead fish is always open ; when 

 alive it can close or open it at pleasure, by 

 means of certain muscles. The body is long, 

 pentagonal, and covered with five rows of large 

 bony tubercles ; one row of which is placed on 

 the back, and two on each side; the whole 

 under side of the fish, from the end of the nose 



the belly of the fish. The Mario, said by Pliny lib. ix. c. 15. to 

 be found in the Danube and the Borysthenes, was certainly of 

 this genus, a cartilaginous fish (nullis ossibus spinisve intersitis) 

 resembling a small porpesse (Poreulo marino simillimus;) and 

 very probably may be the same with the Beluga, which, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Forster, Phil. Trans. Ivii. 354. has a short blunt 

 nose, agreeing in that respect with the porpesse. 



