STURGEON. 
1057 
The ordinary size of the Scandinavian Sturgeon is 
about 1V 2 — 2 m. In the island-belt of Soder mankind, 
according to Ekstrom, small specimens 3 — 6 dm. long 
are commonest. The young Sturgeon, 18 cm. long, 
figured by Linnaeus, is still preserved in the Royal 
Museum; but whether it was taken in Scandinavia, is 
uncertain. Among the specimens measured by Kroyer 
the three smallest are 16 — 32 cm. long; but he does 
not state whether they are Scandinavian. Malm’s small- 
est specimen was 39 cm. in length. On the other 
hand, rather large specimens, measuring up to 3 in., 
are more frequently found; and Lindstrom records the 
find in Gothland of a dead, stranded Sturgeon which 
was stated to have been 14 Sw. feet (415 cm.) long. 
According to an old statement in Schonevelde, the 
Elbe Sturgeon has been known to attain a length of 
18 feet (5 2 /3 m.)“. 
The body of the Sturgeon is of an elongated fusi- 
form shape or, when the fish is spent, clavate, thickest 
at the occiput. It tapers forward in a highly charac- 
teristic manner, due to the pyramidical form of the 
snout, and also deviates behind from the ordinary pis- 
cine type in its oblique, prolongated, and heterocercal 
caudal fin. The greatest depth of the body, which is 
usually deepest just behind the occiput, is about 7 8 — 
Vio of its length, and the greatest thickness about 
7 10 — V 9 °f the same. The least depth, just in front 
of the caudal fin, is only about 3 % of the length, but 
increases with age (during the growth of the Sturgeon 
from a length of 16 cm. to one of 185 cm.) from 11 
to 16 % of the length of the head, or from 23 to 28 % 
of the length of the pectoral tins. The fusiform shape 
of the body is considerably modified, however, especially 
during youth and in lean specimens, by the large shield- 
rows, which render it pentagonal in section. The shield- 
rows belong to the dorsal line, the lateral line, and 
the side margins of the belly; but on the under sur- 
face of the tail, between the vent and the anal fin, the 
ventral rows coalesce, at least partially, into one, which 
is again divided, however, behind the anal fin; and on 
the back of the tail, behind the dorsal fin, the shield- 
row of the dorsal line commonly, but often irregularly, 
breaks up into two rows, which may also be pre- 
indicated in front of the dorsal fin by one or two pairs 
of plates, smaller than the rest, being fitted in before 
a Belon (Nat., Div. Poiss., p. 89) also mentions a specimen 
at Montargis to King Francis I. 
b I. e. of a texture that distinctly calls to mind the plates o 
its fulcrum. In shape and relative position the buck- 
lers show considerable variations, individual, it is true, 
appearing even in specimens of equal size, but evidently 
also expressing the alterations of growth. In young 
Sturgeons they are more densely set and deeper, with 
sharper and more pointed, recurved spine, which is 
furnished with small spines on its sloping hind margin. 
With age the spines are obliterated, the plates become 
shallower (flatter), and separate more and more from 
each other in the several rows. Yet it applies to these 
alterations of growth, as to so many others, that they 
appear more distinctly in one individual than in an- 
other, and have consequently occasioned the designation 
of the same species by a plurality of names. As a 
rule the spines are most persistent on the posterior 
body bucklers. The plates of the dorsal line are most 
curved, showing in young Sturgeons an acute-angled 
transverse section; the plates of the lateral lines are 
least curved, especially in the anterior parts thereof; 
the plates of the ventral line, even during youth, are 
most remote from each other. The surface of the 
scutes is scabrous and both radially and concentrically 
striated with cavities and ridges, calling to mind the 
scale-texture we have seen above in the Eels. In the 
dorsal and lateral lines the anterior scutes are shorter 
(comparatively broader) than the posterior. The form 
of the plates further varies from the rhomb, which pre- 
ponderates in the ventral lines and the anterior part 
of the dorsal line, or hexagon (rhombs with truncated 
anterior and posterior angles), which appears in the rest 
of the dorsal line, to the semicircle or triangle, as shown 
in the lateral lines. The foremost (properly the only 6 ) 
fulcrum supporting the anterior margin of the vertical 
fins is linguiform in the dorsal and anal tins, with the 
narrower end directed up the fin-margin: at the upper 
and lower margins of the caudal fin the tongue is pro- 
longated to a lanceolate form. The inconstancy in the 
number of plates in the dorsal line before the dorsal 
fin and in the lateral lines has been mentioned above. 
Behind the dorsal fin 4 pairs are set, as a rule, in front 
of the caudal fulcrum; but on each side of the posterior 
part of the dorsal fin the small dermal plates are usually 
enlarged with age, so that a more or less regular row 
of 2 or 3 plates, smallest in front, appears on each side 
at this point, forming a. forward continuation of the 
18 feet long. 
: the body. 
A Sturgeon of this size was said to have been presented 
