COMMON FISHES OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER 
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visible eggs. An example taken near Keokuk on April 21, 1916, measured 69 centi- 
meters (about 28 inches), 55.5 centimeters to base of caudal fin, and weighed 0.75 
kilo (about 1% pounds). The stomach, examined by Stringham, contained about a 
cubic centimeter of matter, consisting of insect debris (90 per cent), May-fly remains 
(5 per cent), and parasites (5 per cent). In the intestine were about 3 cubic centi- 
meters consisting of fish (minnows 95 per cent) and May -fly nymphs (5 per cent). 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION REGARDING STURGEONS 
The rock sturgeon or rubbernose sturgeon was formerly a fairly abundant fish 
in the upper Mississippi River and of the highest value for its meat and roe (for caviar) . 
It has now been virtually lost as a commercial fishery resource, but it would be impossi- 
ble to connect its disappearance with the Keokuk Dam, inasmuch as the fish had been 
virtually lost to the middle section of the river at least five years before the building 
of the dam. It has also been lost to the fisheries of the Great Lakes. 
The shovelnose sturgeon or “hackleback” is a small but very valuable fish. 
It makes the most generally esteemed smoked-fish product of the river, and its roe 
sells at a high price for production of caviar. It frequents regions of strong currents 
and swims near the bottom. Its breeding habits have never been observed, but in 
the vicinity of Keokuk the height of the spawning season is evidently in May, and 
reports indicate that spawning occurs on rocky bottom in swift water. The fish 
does not frequent still waters in numbers, and it is not now known to be abundant 
anywhere above the dam. Its abundance in the river a short distance below the 
dam seems unaffected. Its preference for current virtually eliminates it from Lake 
Keokuk or Lake Pepin. As regards the river between these lakes our evidence is 
hardly adequate but, as far as it goes, indicates a declining importance of the species 
in that region. Evidently, however, breeding occurs in the river above the dam. 
Further inquiries should be made during a season of good flow of water. 
The white sturgeon is little known and is apparently of small commercial 
importance in the river. 
THE GAR PIKES (Lepisosteidse) 
With the gars we come to another small group of fishes that is peculiarly North 
American. Reptilelike, flexible-bodied, air breathers, heavily armored, formidably 
toothed, they are so distinctive in appearance that everyone knows them. They 
are sluggish but powerful, stealthy but voracious. They are widely distributed and 
almost universally regarded as unmitigated nuisances. It can not, however, be said 
that they are universally despised, for the meat of gars is said to be esteemed by negroes 
and to have been a common food of Indians. Some white persons who have eaten 
the meat describe it as white, well flavored, and wholesome; others find it coarse 
and stringy. Possibly the ill favor with which it is generally regarded as a food fish 
by whites arises, as in the case of eels, from some suggestive features of its appearance 
more than from intrinsic qualities. The roe of the female, although made up, when 
mature, of large eggs that might be expected to be useful as a fresh food or as caviar, 
is said to be decidedly toxic, and it may therefore be that unpleasant experience 
from the use of the roe has had something to do with the establishment of a firm 
prejudice against the meat. Whatever may be the future place of the gar in dietetics, 
it is at present to be regarded as a generally unwelcome element of the fauna of the 
river. Nevertheless, any influence of the dam upon their numbers would be a proper 
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