134 ACIPENSKR STURIO. 



is even considered as one of the most delicate of fishes. Sterlet soup is 

 said to have formed one of the favorite luxuries of the famous epi- 

 cure Prince Potemkin, of Russia, who in seasons when the fish 

 was remarkably dear, was content to purchase it at a price so extra- 

 vagant that a single tureen cost him the enormous sum of three 

 hundred rubles. In Russia, the Sterlet makes its appearance 

 chiefly at tables of the nobility, and the caviar prepared from its 

 roe is confined almost exclusively to the use of the royal table. 



ACIPENSER STURIO.— The Common Sturgeon. 



Spec. Char. Body long, pentagonal, cinereous, with 

 dusky variegations, and covered with five rows of 

 bony tubercles, one on the back and two on each side ; 

 abdomen whitish ; pectoral fins oval ; dorsal fin near 

 the tail ; tail bifurcated, the upper lobe much longer 

 than the under. 



Acipenser; Plin. Hist. Nat. 1.9. c. 17, 1.32, c. 11. Acipcnser Sturio; Syst. Nat. 

 Gmclin, i. p. 1483 ; Bloc/i, Icht/i.uu p. 80, t.88; Shaw, Zool. v. p.371,t.l59. 

 Esturgeon, Fr.j Sturione, It.; Der Stotr, Ger. 



The Sturgeon is a large fish, growing to the length of eighteen or 

 twenty feet. It is sometimes taken in the Thames ; and is found 

 in all the European and American Seas, whence it ascends the 

 larger rivers and lakes connected with them in April and May, to 

 deposit its spawn, and returns to the sea again in autumn. The 

 Sturgeon is admired for the delicacy and firmness of its flesh, which 

 is white, and when roasted is said to resemble veal. Of the roe, 

 properly salted and dried, is prepared the substance called caviar, 

 and the sound affords an inferior sort of isinglass. 



