FOOD PEODUCTS OF THE SEA — FISHES. 309, 



Azov, especially the northern and eastern coasts of the 

 peninsula of Kertch, is almost as tender as salted salmon, 

 •of an orange brown colour, and translucid. Its smell is 

 peculiar, and has nothing disagreeable about it, resem- 

 t)ling a little the odour of fresh cucumber; it should 

 not have an after-taste at all rancid or putrid, nor be 

 too salt. It is only skilful men who, can give to their 

 balyk these good qualities, and although it is bought 

 ■cheap wholesale at the seat of production, it is often sold 

 to consumers as high as 3s. a pound. 



Vesiga. — Another edible, fish-product of Russia is 

 ^'Vesiga," which is the dried dorsal cord of several 

 species of sturgeon. When the fish has been gutted, 

 and the roe and the swimming-bladder removed, a small 

 incision is made in the flesh, and by inserting the finger, 

 the dorsal cord is removed in. the form of a long and 

 straight ribbon. This is carefully washed, and by 

 squeezing, the soft matter it contains is removed, and it 

 is then left for from three days to a week to dry in the 

 sun, according to the temperature. When thoroughly 

 dry, it is made up into packets, fifty of which weigh 

 about 36 lbs. A packet of vesiga of the great sturgeon 

 or bclouga {A. huso) will only consist of a dozen dried 

 •dorsal cords, while there may be twenty in a package of 

 the vesiga of the common sturgeon {A. Ouldenstadtii) 

 and other small species. 



A thousand belougas of average size will furnish 

 ordinarily 180 pounds of vesiga, while the same number 

 of common sturgeon and sevruga will only yield about 

 thirty or forty pounds. • When the vesiga is boiled it 

 swells, and in this .state it is cut into small pieces, which 

 ■enter into the composition of excellent fish-cakes. 



The following is an estimate made .in 1873, of the 

 products of the fisheries . of the Caspian Sea and its 

 principal affluents, or one fishing district alone of 

 Russia.* 



* A. SchultZf President- of the Administration of Fisheries, 

 Astrakhan, 



