THE STURGEONS. 
On the white sand of the bottom 
Lay the monster Mishe-Nahma 
Lay the sturgeon, King of Fishes. 
Longfellow : Hiawatha’s Fishing. 
^pWO species of Sturgeon are supposed to exist on our Atlantic coast. 
The most abundant of these, Acipenser oxyrhynchus , is now generally 
supposed to be identical with the common Sturgeon of Europe, A. sturio. 
The other, A. brevirostris , which is distinguished from A. oxyrhynchus by 
its shorter and blunter nose, has not yet been found north of Cape Cod, 
and appears to be comparatively less abundant, although both species are 
found in great numbers in the larger rivers and estuaries during the sum¬ 
mer season, and are frequently seen leaping from the water, especially at 
dusk. A leaping Sturgeon is a striking object, the whole length of the 
fish appearing above the surface before it falls back with a splash into the 
water. 
The Sturgeon attains the length of five to twelve feet. In Europe, indi¬ 
viduals of the common Sturgeon eighteen feet long have been observed. 
They spawn in spring and early summer, in the lower stretches of the 
rivers, and perhaps also at their mouths, in brackish water. 
The mouth is situated upon the under surface of the head, and is not 
provided with teeth, but is surrounded with a cup-shaped organ composed 
of powerful muscular tissue, by means of which it grubs for its food in the 
mud. Its stomach resembles that of the menhaden and mullet, though 
comparatively more muscular, since, like the gizzard of a fowl, one of its 
uses is to triturate the food which has been swallowed, and which consists 
largely of mollusks, and crustaceans. Around the mouth is a group of 
large and sensitive tentacles, which aid the fish in its search for food. 
No one has yet made a careful study of the habits of the Sturgeon in our 
waters, and in fact European zoologists have made little progress in the 
study of the species of the Old World. 
Within the past few years the capture of the Sturgeon for smoking and 
for the manufacture of caviare from its eggs has attained considerable 
importance on the Atlantic coast. The most satisfactory discussion of this 
fish is that published by Milner in Part II, of the Report of the United 
States Fish Commission, pages 67 to 75. 
