FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE SEA — FISHES. 305 



as large as 800 lbs., and frequents not only the seas and 

 rivers, but the lakes of the country. The flesh is by 

 some considered excellent ; it is dried by the Indians, 

 and is also salted. Generally speaking, however, the 

 flesh of the sturgeon is dry and tough, nor could we 

 expect aught else from a flsh weighing several hundred 

 pounds. Specimens reaching from 800 to 1,000 lbs. 

 have frequently been caught in the Danube in olden 

 times. 



It is said that a good cook can obtain beef, mutton, 

 pork, or poultry from the flesh of the sturgeon, which is 

 very likely, as some of its flesh is quite white and some 

 the colour of rump steak. The sturgeons have, instead 

 of bones, soft flexible gristle. 



There are few other fishes which are of greater use to 

 man than the sturgeon. In Russia a large proportion of 

 the population is supported by the sturgeon fisheries, and 

 they live chiefly on it. The flesh is there considered to 

 combine a certain firmness with excellent flavour, and is 

 even preferred to veal by many persons. They are either 

 salted, dried in the sun, or smoked, and thus shipped to 

 a great distance. The choicest species is the sterlet {A. 

 ruthenus), which seldom weighs more than eight or nine 

 pounds. It is in the Russian rivers that the difierent 

 species of sturgeon most abound, the principal ones 

 taken are Acipenser huso, A. Guldemtadtii, Brandt, 

 A. schipay Guld., and A. stellatus, Rallaa. Besides their 

 flesh, other products obtained from them, as caviare, 

 isinglass, and vesiga, form a considerable portion of their 

 value. 



The flavour of the flesh and the quality of the products 

 of the four species named difl'er very little. The aggre- 

 gate value of these may be estimated at £1,200,000, more 

 than half being made up of the fish frozen, salted, or 

 prepared in balyk, weighing in the aggregate perhaps 

 Vo million pounds. 



Besides the sturgeon, there are numerous other fishes 

 caught in Russia as the sander (Leucopercus sandre), of 

 ■which 60,000,000 to 100,000,000 are taken; the ordinary 



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