284 GANOIDEI. 



islands (Baikie, Zoo!. 1853). Along the east coast of Scotland now and then, 

 at Banff once (Edward), at Aberdeen (Sim), occasionally in the salmon nets at 

 St. Andrew's (Mcintosh). At Findhorn, Scotland,* one 8| ft. long and weighing 

 203 lb. was taken in the stake nets, July 18th, 1833 (Mag. Nat. Hist, vi, p. 530). 

 Moray Firth, in 1833, 1836, and 1844, specimens from the south side of this 

 Firth. In the Firth of Forth, on an average, one is taken every three years 

 (Parnell), and in Berwickshire one or more occasionally (Johnstone). Yorkshire, 

 . not uncommon off the coast, also at the mouth of the Tees and in the Humber 

 (Yorkshire Vertebrata). In fact, this fish occurs more or less all round our 

 coasts, and the instances recorded are too numerous to insert. A correspondent 

 of the Field remarked that in the spring of 1832, when at a private school at Kew, 

 he remembered a sturgeon being caught two or three miles below in the Thames. 

 It was about 7 ft. long, and was taken to the Lord Mayor as his perquisite, due to 

 its being captured above London Bridge. This Mr. Francis Francis believed to 

 be the last captured so high up, and corresponds with the time that salmon 

 disappeared from that river due to impurities. In July, 1883, one 6| ft. long 

 and 117 lb. weight was captured floating down the Thames in an almost lifeless 

 condition ; it was believed to have been suffocated from the sewage which runs 

 into the river at Crossness (Harting, Zool. 1883, p. 341). Examples exist in the 

 British Museum from the North Sea, two from the Thames, 5 ft. and 6 ft. long, two 

 from Teignmouth, also the upper part of a head of one of the variety, A. latirostris, 

 from Berwick-on-Tweed, and another from an unrecorded locality. These fish 

 must have been at least 7 or 8 ft. in length. Is frequently taken in Norfolk 

 (Lowe), occasionally in Devonshire (Parfitt), rare in Cornwall (Cornish Fauna), 

 not infrequent in the estuary of the Severn, and is found in the Wye and the Usk. 

 Occasionally taken at Swansea (Dillwyn), and in 1881 at Ferryside, South Wales. 



In Ireland is taken occasionally in the large rivers from north to south 

 (Thompson). It has been recorded at Derry (Sampson), Kilkenny (Tighe), 

 Dublin (Rutty), Cork (Smith), Belfast, also Cushendall, co. Antrim ; Dundrum, 

 co. Down, Dundalk, Carrick-on-Suir, and Wexford. Mr. D. Ogilby remarks that 

 it is not unfrequently taken in the salmon nets of the Foyle and Bann. In the 

 former it has been captured as far up as Strabane. 



The cast of one 11-| ft. long is present in the South Kensington Museum, taken 

 in 1879 off Heligoland, it weighed 5 cwt. 2 qr. and 7 lb., and Lowe (Fauna 

 of Norfolk) alludes to one taken off the Suffolk coast 12 ft. 2 in. long, but which 

 weighed only 156 lb. Pennant mentions one which weighed 460 lb. taken in 

 the Esk about 1774. "A head prepared by Mr. Stirling, of the Anatomical 

 Museum of the University of Edinburgh, was cut from a sturgeon caught near 

 Alloa, said! to weigh, when entire, 50 stones, or 700 lb. ; its length was 9 ft." 

 (Sir J. Richardson). My figure (Plate CL) is from a Margate example 5 ft. 

 4 in. long, and Fig. 3 from a Torbay specimen 4 ft. 10 in. long. 



* In vol. i, p. 311, 1 remarked upon Sibbald having at the end of his list of Scotch fish, Siluris 

 sivi glanis, and 1 may remark here that Silurus was one of the terms employed by ancient writers 

 for the sturgeon. 



