NATURALHI STORY of iVOTJ/F^r. 153 



The Storre, or Storje, Sturio, the Surgeon, is an excellent Fifh for storre. 

 the table 5 it is ten or twelve feet in length, and very ftrong and 

 voracious. We have here, befide the true Sturgeon, four different 

 forts of Fifh, called by this name, with the addition of the names 

 of thofe on which they feed, and of which they may be accounted 

 the greateft enemies. Some are called Salmon-ftorjer, others 

 Mackarel-ftorjer, others Herring-ftorjer, and again, others Sey- 

 ftorjer # . They come towards the more about Midfummer, with 

 the Summer-herrings, which they drive along at fuch a violent 

 rate, that they will raife themfelves above the furface of the water 

 in the purfuit. They do not fwim together in fhoals, or extend in 

 breadth, but follow one another in a ftrait line, laying hold of 

 each other's tails. When a whole firing of them is feen thus 

 together, they are fometimes taken for the great Sea-fnake, of 

 which I fhall treat hereafter. 



The Sturgeon is fometimes caught in the Salmon-nets, or ftuck 

 with a harpoon, called here a fkottel. The flefh of it is finely 

 interlarded with fat, and a fingie Fifh will fill two calks. They 

 are pickled down, and the peafants reckon them a great deli- 

 cacy : they likewife cut them into flices, and make what they 

 call rekling of them. The Salmon-ftorjen is the fatteft, and out 

 of its head alone may be extracted fometimes a half cafk of oil. 

 This Storjer, which is a large Fifh of prey, deferves the name 

 Accipenfer among the Fifh, as well as the hawk does that of 

 Accipiter among the birds There is alfo caught here, tho' feldom, 

 another fort of Fifh of the fame name, which is quite harmlefi ' 

 this is the true Sturgeon. It has no teeth in the jaws, and is 

 obferved to fuck the flime at the bottom of the fea, which is their 

 only nourifhment. The Sturgeon fattens, like the Salmon, in 

 rivers and frefh water. " Sturio nunquam fere vel certe rariflime 

 in praealto mari capitur. Maria eum gignunt, fed flumina maxime 

 nobilitant. ^ Pinguefcit enim dulcium aquarum hauftu. Dum 

 efcam quaerit, more fuis terram fub aquis roftro fodit, &c." Wil- 

 loughb. L. iv. c. 22, p. 240. I have one of thefe fort of Stor, 

 caught fome time ago in Nordfiord, in my collection of the fcarce 

 Fifh of this country : it is almoft eight feet long, the head at 

 firit fight appears fomething like a Pike's, but inftead of the 

 mouth it has a kind of a fnout, withfeveral flips or beards hanging 

 down under the head. The mouth is placed in the middle under^ 



* Sturio nomen Gothicum efle afferit Jul. Casf. Scaliger, & ab ea gente in reliquam 

 Europam tranflatum. Quod facile mihi perfuafero. Stur vel Stoer magnum notat in 

 noftra lingua, quocirca probabile eft, ob magnitudinem fuam hoc generali nomine ap- 

 pellatum quoque tuiffe hunc pifcem. Accipenfer veterum efTe videtur & o- a Ieus Rho- 

 dius Athenasi, Aufonio filurus, nobis Stoer. Ol. Worm Muf. p 272 & 



Part II. R r nea th, 



