Sturgeon

“ Joy brightened every face; a more generous wine filled fresh goblets, and some flatterers—for the sturgeon possessed many—with eyes fixed on the noble accipenser, compared its flesh to the ambrosia of the immortals. ”

“ Through the wave the sturgeon flew,
And, like the heaven-shot javelin,
He sprung above the waters blue.
Instant as the star-fall light,
He plunged him in the deep again,
But left an arch of silver bright
The rainbow of the moony main. ”

“ The James has always been a favourite spawning-ground for sturgeon. Those first colonists, writing enthusiastically of the newfound river, declared "As for Sturgeon, all the World cannot be compared to it." They told of a unique and spirited way the Indians had of catching these huge, lubberly fish. In a narrow bend of the river where the sturgeon crowded, an adroit fisherman would clap a noose over the tail of a great fish (a fish perhaps much larger than himself) and go plunging about with his powerful captive. ”

“ Nature knows well that our petty efforts of fleets and fisheries would be insufficient and that the Cod would conquer us; and nature evokes another and a more efficient destroyer of the superfluous life that would produce universal death. Down from its spawning bed in the river, thin, famishing, eager, fierce with hunger, comes the Sturgeon, that great devourer. Real rapture it is to the famishing glutton to find, on his return to the sea, ready fattened for him, the succulent and unctuous Cod, the concentrated substance of whole shoals of Herrings! ”

“ CHAPTER XIV THE SQUALL "Sturgeon Island, did you say, Allan?" remarked Step Hen. "Sounds like it might be a good fishing place. If we happened to land there, perhaps Bumpus and Giraffe might manage to do some big stunts, pulling in sturgeon. Can anybody tell me what sort of a fish that is, anyway? I never saw one, or a fellow that caught one, either."
"Oh! they grow to big size, and are caught in the Great Lakes in this country. ”

“ Another object, perhaps, is a solitary man paddling himself down the river in a small canoe, the light, lonely touch of his paddle in the water making the silence seem deeper. Every few minutes a sturgeon leaps forth, sometimes behind you, so that you merely hear the splash, and, turning hastily around, see nothing but the disturbed water. Sometimes he darts straight on end out of a quiet black spot on which your eyes happen to be fixed, and, when even his tail is clear of the surface, he falls down on his side and disappears. ”

“ There are many species of sturgeon, all confined to the northern hemisphere. They live in the sea and great lakes, and ascend the great rivers. All supply valuable commodities, for which they are regularly captured on a large scale. These commodities are their flesh, which is palatable and wholesome, their roe (caviare) , and their air-bladders, from which isinglass is made.
The most important sturgeon-fishery in Europe is that of the Volga and the Caspian Sea. The flesh of the fish is salted, and caviare and isinglass made on a large scale from the roes and air-bladder. ”

“ The Sturgeon inhabit waters of the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere. They reach a length of over ten feet and feed upon worms and shell fish, which they pry out of the sandy or muddy bottoms with their sharp snout. ”

“ Of a Sturgeon, how it ought to be cured, for cold Meat, or dressed hot for the Table.
The Sturgeon is a Fish commonly found in the Northern Seas; but now and then, we find them in our great Rivers; the Thames, the Severn and the Tyne. This Fish is of a very large size; even sometimes to measure eighteen Foot in length. They are in great esteem when they are fresh taken, to be cut in Pieces, of eight or ten Pounds, and roasted or baked; besides, to be pickled and preserv'd for cold Treats: And moreover, the Caviar, which is esteem'd a Dainty, is the Spawn of this Fish. ”

“ Numbers of that large fish called 'sturgeon' are taken from the waters of the Caspian; and there is quite a colony of fishermen engaged in this occupation on the Persian coast; and during the season they catch thousands of these useful fish. No part of a sturgeon is wasted: the roe is taken out, salted, and stowed away in casks; this is known by the name of 'caviare,' and is esteemed a great luxury. From the sound or air-bladder isinglass is made, simply by being hung in the sun for a time; and the fish itself is dried, and exported to various parts of the world. ”

“ The Sturgeon, when taken in the Thames, is called a Royal fish, by which is meant, that it ought to be, and formerly was, presented to the sovereign, for the royal table. The flesh, which is much more solid than that of fish generally, is considered as a great delicacy ”

“ The flavor of the young sturgeon is extremely delicate, but that materially depends upon the river in which it is caught, as it feeds upon the insects and plants,—in fact, entirely by suction; those caught in rapid rivers and sandy bottoms, and where they have the advantage of salt and fresh water, are the best. ”

“ MAKING THE STURGEON USEFUL.
So soundly had he slept that the owl and kingfisher, having completed their arrangements for the removal of the sea-weed, had removed Arthur also, and he woke to find himself on the back of an enormous sturgeon, with sea-weed under him, over him, and about him. Tightly about the sturgeon was bound an old rope, which the kingfisher had procured from the remains of a wreck on the rocks, and in which he had entangled the sturgeon ”

“ The first glance at a sturgeon would lead any one accustomed to fish, to decide at once that it must be a ground-feeder: the form and position of the mouth, the lengthened snout, the barbels, the ventral fins so far back, the large size of the pectorals—as I have already stated—all clearly evidence a habit of grubbing-up food of various kinds near the bottom, and browsing off shelled molluscs adhering to sticks or stones. They also indulge in small fish: eulachon are oily dainties they seem particularly to appreciate ”

“ The biggest specimen on record was taken from the Columbia River near Vancouver in 1929. It was over twelve feet long and weighed 1285 pounds. These big sturgeon in the Columbia River are largely a thing of the past, and the fish now caught seldom exceed five feet in length. Sturgeon is much appreciated locally as a food fish, but is relatively scarce. Squire Spencer's letter contains a lively tradition that Sauvie Island sturgeon came ashore from the lake and stripped the fruit from the nearby apple trees. ”

“ The sturgeon, one of the oldest types of fishes, surviving the changes of thousands of years, and the taking of which was con- trolled by the royal perquisites of the ancient kings of England, is common —
in fact, is met with every day on the side- walks of our city. The sea is prolific of life; whales pass up and down the coast from their feeding grounds in the Arctic to their breeding grounds in the warm bays of Lower California. ”

“ To add further to this, if we consider the abundance, largeness, and peculiar excellency of the sturgeon in that country, it will not fall into the least of scruples, but that one species will be of an invaluable profit to the buyer, or if we repeat to our thoughts the singular plenty of herrings and mackerel, in goodness and greatness much exceeding whatever of that kind these our seas produce, a very ordinary understanding may at the first inspection perceive that it will be no great difficulty to out-labor and out-vie the Hollander in that his almost only staple. ”

“ It is not always the largest that prey on each other, for the sturgeon is one of the largest fresh water fish, and he subsists on decomposing matter, or 132 minute fish. A few pike placed in a lake, would very effectually prevent an over-population. May it not, then, be so ordered that the inhabitants of the seas, which are not so favored as those who dwell on the earth’s surface, and who have a great variety of food to supply their wants, may have the means of providing their own sustenance by an immense increase of their own species? ”

“ There are two royal fish so styled by the English law writers—the whale and the sturgeon; both royal property under certain limitations, and nominally supplying the tenth branch of the crown’s ordinary revenue. I know not that any other author has hinted of the matter; but by inference it seems to me that the sturgeon must be divided in the same way as the whale, the King receiving the highly dense and elastic head peculiar to that fish, which, symbolically regarded, may possibly be humorously grounded upon some presumed congeniality. And thus there seems a reason in all things, even in law. ”

“ Early the next morning they were visited by a number of friendly Indians, who informed them that the sturgeon were very numerous in the river at the foot of the rapids, and that excellent sport could be had in killing some of them.
While the usual method of capturing the sturgeon is with large gill nets, a more exciting way is by spearing them at the foot of the rapids, where at times they gather in large numbers, or by shooting them as they spring into the air. To spear a large sturgeon from a birch canoe, and not get an upset, is a difficult matter. ”

“ Four species of Sturgeon are commonly known. The Caviare Sturgeon, the Huso or Isinglass Fish, the Great Sturgeon and the Common Sturgeon. The Caviare Sturgeon is the best known in this country, as well as in European waters, and it is the most eagerly sought after by fishermen because it is from the roe of this Fish that the noted delicacy called caviare is made, which until recent years was confined principally to Russia, 254but which is now well known and consumed on both continents. ”

“ The sturgeon confesses that he gave way to this graceful flattery, and entered into a weir made to catch fish, which he found to be similar to the gates of great lords' houses—large when one goes in, and small when one goes out; he fell into the net, in which the jorsh saw him, and cried out, deriding him, "Suffer for the love of Christ." The deposition of the sturgeon makes a great impression upon the minds of the judges, who give orders to inflict the knout upon the little jorsh, to impale it in the great heat, as a punishment for its cheating ”

“ The Sturgeon is more abundant in the Northern Coasts of Europe. It is also found in the more Southern parts. It was esteemed by the ancients as a very great luxury and it was held in high repute for the table by the Greeks and Romans and at their banquets it was introduced with particular ceremonies.
In England when caught in the Thames within the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor of London it is a Royal Fish reserved for the Sovereign. The flesh is white, delicate, firm and nutritious. It is used both fresh, generally stewed. The largest species of Sturgeon is the Bielaga, or Huso. ”

“ Sturgeons are the objects of rather extensive fisheries in both Europe and America; in China they are also important. In Europe the Russians lead in the sturgeon fishery. In the United States the industry is of comparatively recent origin, but is already rapidly declining because of the exhaustion of the supply through indiscriminate fishing. In the United States sturgeon are taken principally by the gill-net and set lines, though many are also taken in pound-nets and seines. ”

“ A shallow pigmented groove in front of the mouth apparently represents the sucker of the young Amia and Lepidosteus. Although toothless in the adult, both the Sturgeon and Sterlet possess vestigial rudimentary, uncalcified, larval teeth, which in shape resemble the teeth of a Dog-Fish, consisting of a broad base and a sharp spine.
The Sturgeon is a Fish of considerable economic importance. The flesh is an article of food, and from the ovaries of certain Russian and American species thousands of hundredweights of {495}caviare are prepared annually. ”

“ The sturgeon, we believe, is found almost everywhere, and known to almost everybody.
There is a fish found in Florida which we have never seen, but which, from all the descriptions that we have heard, belongs either to the trout or basse families. It abounds in all the rivers, lakes and springs of this State, is a bold biter, reaches the weight of fifteen pounds, has a white and sweet flesh, and is taken in very much the manner employed by northern anglers in capturing the pike, and with similar artificial baits. ”

“ Cut a rand of sturgeon into pieces as big as a hens egg, cleanse it, and season them with pepper, salt, ginger, and nutmeg, then make a pye and lay some butter in the bottom of it, then the pieces of sturgeon, and two or three bay-leaves, some large mace, three or four whole cloves, some blanched chesnuts, gooseberries, grapes, or barberries, and butter, close it up and bake it, and being baked, liquor it with beaten butter, and the blood of the sturgeon boil’d together with a little claret-wine. ”

“ On the Fraser river sturgeon-spearing is the most exciting sport imaginable. Hooking, playing, and landing a noble salmon is an achievement every fisherman is truly proud of; but I unhesitatingly assert that to spear and land a184 sturgeon five or six hundred pounds in weight, with only a frail canoe, which the slightest inequality of balance will upset in an instant, requires a degree of skill, courage, and dexterity that only a lifetime’s practice can bestow.
I have already said the Fraser has no falls below Fort Hope, but a great many stiff rapids ”

“ The sturgeon has been already mentioned, but they are unfortunately too rare; seldom more than five or six are captured in a season; they weigh from one hundred to five hundred pounds. A beautiful small fish of the size of the anchovy, and shaped like a salmon, is found in a river that falls into Stuart's Lake; it is said they pass the winter in the lake, and ascend their favourite stream in the month of June, where they deposit their spawn. They have the silvery scales of the larger salmon, and are exceedingly rich; but the natives preserve them almost exclusively for their own use. ”