PLATE LXV. 
taken from a single fish will sometimes weigh from two to three hun- 
dred pounds ; and were we to give implicit credit to the assurances of 
some writers, we might even suppose that Sturgeons are taken at times 
in those parts of a thousand pounds weight each. 
In all the northern parts of the world the Sturgeon hsheiy seems 
to be considered as an object of the greatest consideration. In the 
north of Europe, Asia, and America, there are regular fisheries for 
them. In Russia the principal season for taking them, as Pallas ac- 
quaints us, is m the depth of winter, when the natives assemble at a 
stated period, and breaking through the ice, take them in great abun- 
dance from the rivers, with the assistance of spears, or harpoons, and 
long poles furnished with hooks at the extremity. The flesh of the 
Sturgeon is excellent, and is eaten either fresh, salted, or pickled in 
a peculiar manner. In this latter state it constitutes an article of ex- 
tensive and lucrative commerce with those countries where the Stur- 
geon is less plentiful ; as does likewise the caviare, three different 
kinds of which they prepare from the roe of this fish. 
The Sturgeon is a creature of a sluggish, quiet, nature, alternately 
inhabiting the fresh waters, and the sea, and subsisting on the smallei 
kinds of fish. It has been observed, that those Sturgeons which have 
remained during the winter in the fresh waters return again to the sea 
on the approach of summer. This appears to be contrary to their 
usual course, for they commonly ascend the rivers in the spring after 
remaining in the sea all the winter. 
In our fish the dorsal fin contains thirty-five rays: pectoral tin 
twenty-eight : ventral fin twenty-four : anal twenty-three, and the 
tail one hundred and twenty- five. 
