lOD 
STURGEONS. 
origin of ceremonies concerning it as they were practised at 
Eome; and in so doing, also confirm our knowledge of the 
species. 
The Greek author informs us that when fishermen were so 
fortunate as to have caught an Elops, they adorned themselves 
and their boat with garlands, and brought the fish to land 
with shouts and music. The difference between this and the 
ceremony practised at Eome was only that the procession was 
made to marshal its progress from the kitchen to the table, 
instead of from the boat to the shore; and it was perhaps on 
account of the ceremony and the attendant expense, that 
hlartial in one of his epigrams, pronounced it a fish properly 
fit for a table at the palace; as by a sort of traditionary re- 
membrance, built on a mistake, but coimtenanced by law, the 
only Sturgeon known among us is still spoken of as subject to 
royal authority. 
But in spite of its former reputation, in the time of Pliny 
the Elops had sunk greatly in estimation; at which circumstance 
he expresses his wonder, as it possessed the principal qualifica- 
tion for exciting interest in the opinion of his countrymen, — of 
being brought from a very remote distance. 
But although it thus appears beyond doubt that the Common 
Sturgeon was not the fish so highly valued at the time referred 
to, we learn further from iElian some facts, from which we 
may safely gather that this more common species was in that 
day, as it had long been, the object of extensive fisheries in 
the rivers of the Caspian Sea. The name he gives it is 
Oxyrhyncus, or the Sharp-nose; and he says that it grows to 
the length of eight cubits, that it was salted and dried, and 
sometimes by taking away the fat it was made into meal, — a 
process which may apply to the preparation of what is now 
termed Caviare ; and in this condition it was carried on camels 
to Ecbatana, in Persia. They also made glue of a superior 
kind by boiling the entrails; and this, from its strength n'-d 
transparency, was employed in the formation of elegant woias 
of ivory. 
