576 STERLET. 



preparation of this useful article may be found in 

 the sixty-third volume of the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions : the skin^ tail, stomach, and intestines of 

 the fish are used for the same purpose ; and indeed 

 an isinglass of a somewhat inferior kind may be 

 prepared from the same parts of many other fishes. 



STERLET. 



Acipenser Ruthenus. A. subfuscus, later ibus svhruhro maculatis, 



corpore supra serie tiiplici tuherculato. 

 Brownish Sturgeon, with the sides spotted with pale red, and 



the body shielded above by a triple series of tubercles. 

 Acipenser Ruthenus. A. cirris quatuor, squamis dorsalibus 



quindecim. Lin. Sysf. Nat, 

 Acipenser ordinibus scutorum tribus. Bloch. t. 89. 

 Sterlet. Brui/n.it.g3.t.33. 



The Sterlet is the smallest species of Sturgeon 

 yet discovered : in length it rarely exceeds three 

 feet, and is principally found in the Caspian sea 

 and the adjoining rivers Volga and Ural : it is also 

 found, though much less fi*equently, in the Baltic 

 sea. It is said to have been introduced into some 

 of the large lakes of Sweden by Frederick the first ; 

 and into some parts of Brandenburg and Pomerania 

 by the King of Prussia. The head of this species 

 is longer in proportion than in other Sturgeons, and 

 flattened both above and below : the body rather 

 more slender, and the bony shields with which the 

 upper parts are covered less protuberant and of a 

 thinner substance : along the belly are also dis- 

 posed two ranges of small, flat sliields : the general 



