Oct. 3, 1908.] 
once hooked. This fish, as Jones pictured it to 
his friends, was an immense one; the fish, as 
Jones managed it to be, was big enough in all 
conscience, but still not quite so gigantic; while 
the fish that Jones’s friends really knew it to be 
was, of course, a sprat. These and many others, 
told and retold in and out of the angling inn, 
are forever hammering fresh nails into what 
reputation for truth may still be left to a few 
anglers—it is but a shred of a reputation now 
among a large of people who know nothing 
about angling, and whose one idea of a fisher¬ 
man is that of a luckless individual sitting in 
a chair in a punt on a pouring wet day drinking 
Scotch whiskey and watching a float. 
Our own belief is that the average angler is 
quite as great a lover of truth as the average 
gunner—indeed, he is often a keen shot him¬ 
self—the average golfist, or the average cyclist. 
“One says we are liars all,” and it is certain 
that, if you are ready to accept the statement 
that all anglers are liars, you will be well on 
the way to the only more sweeping one that all 
men are. No, we feel certain that the assertion 
is a false libel, Anglers are not liars; they are 
persons with a little imagination, with a love 
of romance, of mystery. They are always 
hungering after big fish, some fish, they feel 
sure, which lurk in the dark, deep holes of their 
favorite stream and must ultimately come to 
their hook. Such fish when hooked and lost 
will, naturally, properly be depicted in glow¬ 
ing colors; and as for exactness in regard to 
weight, which decriers of our craft are so fond 
of saying does not obtain among anglers, we 
would point out this—that in the course of our 
angling experiences, we never knew a fisherman 
describe his two pound trout as a one-pound- 
fifteen-ounce one. Does not that fact speak in 
favor of the fisherman being tolerably accurate 
and truthful? 
RUSSIAN STURGEON. 
In certain regions of Russia, especially about 
the Volga River, the sturgeon fisheries are ex¬ 
tremely valuable; so much so that there are 
over 100,000 persons engaged in catching this 
one fish. In the Volga the sturgeon grows to a 
length of 25ft., and is a perfect monster. Part 
of the year it lives in the salt water, but as 
spring comes on it swims up the great rivers 
to deposit its eggs, and to collect these is one 
reason why the sturgeon is followed so per¬ 
sistently. The roe is made into caviare, and 
sent all over the world, the eggs of one season 
averaging £32,000 in value. Besides this, the 
membrane of the air bladder is, when prepared, 
made into isinglass, and 30,000 pounds have been 
secured in one season, valued at £16,000. The 
meat is eaten, and the skins are used as window 
glass, so that it will be seen that the sturgeon 
is a valuable fish. To obtain so much profitable 
material it is evident that they must be caught 
in vast numbers, and such is the case. The 
great fish, weighing from 100 pounds to 460 
pounds, and averaging from 5 inches to 25 feet 
in length, rush into the Volga at certain sea¬ 
sons in such quantities that a million and a half 
have been killed in a single season. During 
these migrations the scene is often a curious 
one. The people, far and wide, are excited at 
the prospect, and rush to the stream with 
various weapons of offence, but so vast are the 
numbers of the fish that nothing deters them. 
At Rubibinsk the river is quite narrow, being 
about 350 feet in width and 28 feet in depth, and 
here, some years ago, during an unprecedented 
run of fish, a most remarkable scene was wit¬ 
nessed. The entire country roundabout was 
aroused, and so alarmed were the fish in the 
river below that they moved up toward Rubi¬ 
binsk in a solid mass, like a great wave; as the 
space grew narrower, they became more com¬ 
pressed, and finally, at the town mentioned, the 
river was fairly blocked with them, and up 
and down the stream for a considerable distance 
there was an actual bridge of sturgeon, their 
bodies forced out of water, while many, by the 
squeezing process, were thrust entirely out 
upon the backs of others. In fact, the Volga 
was bridged with fish, and excited fishermen, 
armed with clubs and spears, dashed upon the 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
557 
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By Nessmuk. Cloth, 160 pages. Illustrated. Price, $1.00. 
A book written for the instruction and guidance of those who go for 
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