306 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



herring in the White Sea and the Baltic ; the herring of 

 the Volga and the Sea of Azov (Clupea pontica, Eichu), 

 of which from sixty to one hundred millions are salted ; 

 the bream, of which upwards of fifty million are caught 

 in the Lower Volga, and large quantities in other quar- 

 ters ; the lake smelt {Eperlanus), of which nine million 

 pounds are obtained from the Lake of Peypons alone. 

 The cod, carp, silurus, salmon, coregonus, and many 

 other fish are also caught in different localities. 



The aggregate value of the Russian fisheries was 

 officially estimated in 1 867 at 20,000,000 of silver roubles 

 (about £3,000,000 sterling), and the quantity of fish 

 taken annually from the waters of Eussia, at 1,000 mil- 

 lion pounds' weight, without counting those locally 

 consumed at the seats of the fisheries.* This amount 

 far surpasses the catch of the Newfoundland and other 

 large fisheries ; and with this enormous take of fish it 

 may well be asked why so little fish is exported from 

 Russia. The answer to this is that Russia has but little 

 sea coast, and that there is a very large demand for 

 supplying the population of 72,000,000. 



It may also be added that during the greater part of 

 the fasts (which amount to over one hundred and fifty 

 days in the year), the Russian people have only fish 

 as their animal food, hence large imports have even to 

 be made to supply the demand. The import of salted 

 herrings yearly into Russia is from 300,000 to 500,000 

 barrels. 



• Not less than 396,000,000 pounds of fish are annually 

 caught in the waters of the Caspian Sea. Of this total 

 36,000,000 lbs. is sturgeon ; 7,200,000 lbs. carp ; sander 

 and pike, 95,400,000 lbs. ; bream, 49,500,000 lbs. ; shad, 

 108,000.000 lbs. ; and the rest is made up of other fish, 

 23erch, silurus, coregonus, etc. 



Besides the ordinary mode of salting, fish are prepared 

 in other ways in Russia, they are smoked, marinaded, 

 and simply dried in the open air or in an oven. This 



* Danilewsky, " Coup d'oeil sur les Peateries en Eusse." 



