the bottom of the sea, where it makes insects and sea-plants its whole subsistence. From this quality of floundering at the bottom it has received its name; which comes from the German verb stoeren, signifying to wallow in the mud. That it lives upon no large animals is obvious to all those who cut it open, where nothing is found in its stomach but a kind of slimy substance, which has induced some to think it lives only upon water and air. From hence there is a German proverb, which is applied to a man extremely temperate, when they say, he is as moderate as a sturgeon.

As the sturgeon is so temperate in its appetites, so is it equally timid in its nature. There would be scarcely any method for taking it, did not its natural desire of propagation induce it to incur so great a variety of dangers. The smallest fish is alone sufficient to terrify a shoal of sturgeons; for, being unfurnished with any weapon of defence, they are obliged to trust to their swiftness and their caution for security. Like all animals that do not make war upon others, sturgeons live in society among themselves; rather for the purposes of pleasure, than from any power of mutual protection. Gesner even asserts, that they are delighted with sounds of various kinds; and that he has seen them shoal together, at the notes of a trumpet.

The usual time, as was said before, for the sturgeon to come up rivers to deposit its spawn, is about the beginning of summer, when the fishermen of all great rivers make a regular preparation for its reception. At Pillau particularly the shores are formed into districts, and allotted to companies of fishermen, some of which are rented for about three

hundred pounds a year. The nets in which the sturgeon is caught, are made of small cord, and placed across the mouth of the river; but in such a manner that, whether the tide ebbs or flows, the pouch of the net goes with the stream. The sturgeon thus caught while in the water, is one of the strongest fishes that swims, and often breaks the net to pieces that encloses it; but the instant it is raised with its head above water, all its activity ceases: it is then a lifeless, spiritless lump, and suffers itself to be tamely dragged on shore. It has been found prudent, however, to draw it to shore gently; for, if excited by any unnecessary violence, it has been found to break the fishermen's legs with a blow of its tail. The most experienced fishers, therefore, when they have drawn it to the brink, keep the head still elevated, which prevents its doing any mischief with the hinder part of the body; others, by a noose, fasten the head and the tail together; and thus, without immediately dispatching it, bring it to the market, if there be one near; or keep it till their number is completed for exportation.

The flesh of this animal pickled, is very well known at all the tables of Europe; and is even more prized in England than in any of the countries where it is usually caught. The fishermen have two different methods of preparing it. The one is by cutting it in long pieces lengthwise, and having salted them, by hanging them up in the sun to dry: the fish thus prepared is sold in all the countries of the Levant, and supplies the want of better provision. The other method, which is usually practised in Holland, and along the shores of the Baltic, is to cut the sturgeon crosswise into short pieces,

and put it into small barrels, with a pickle made of salt and saumure. This is the sturgeon which is sold in England; and of which great quantities came from the North, until we gave encouragement to the importation of it from North America. From thence we are very well supplied; but it is said, not with such good fish as those imported from the north of Europe.

A very great trade is also carried on with the roe of the sturgeon, preserved in a particular manner, band called Caviar: it is made from the roe of all kinds of sturgeon, but particularly the second. This is much more in request in other countries of Europe than with us. To all these high-relished meats, the appetite must be formed by degrees; and though formerly even in England it was very much in request at the politest tables, it is at present sunk entirely into disuse. It is still, however, a considerable merchandize among the Turks, Greeks, and Venetians. Caviar somewhat resembles soft soap in consistence; but is of a brown, uniform colour, and is eaten as cheese with bread. The manner of making it is this: they take the spawn from the body of the sturgeon-for it is to be observed that the sturgeon differs from other cartilaginous fish, in that it has spawn like a cod, and not eggs like a ray; they take the spawn, I say, and freeing it from the small membranes that connect it together, they wash it with vinegar, and afterward spread it to dry upon a table; they then put it into a vessel with salt, breaking the spawn with their hands, and not with a pestle; this done, they put it into a canvass bag, letting the liquor drain from it; lastly, they put it in a tub, with holes in the bottom, so

that, if there be any moisture still remaining, it may run out then it is pressed down, and covered up close for use.

But, the Huso or Isinglass fish furnishes a still more valuable commodity. This fish is caught in great quantities in the Danube, from the month of October to January: it is seldom under fifty pounds weight, and often above four hundred its flesh is soft, glutinous, and flabby; but it is sometimes salted, which makes it better tasted, and then it turns red like salmon. It is for the commodity it furnishes that it is chiefly taken. Isinglass is of a whitish substance, inclining to yellow, done up into rolls, and so exported for use. It is very well known as serviceable not only in medicine, but many arts. The varnisher, the wine-merchant, and even the clothier, know its uses; and very great sums are yearly expended upon this single article of commerce. The manner of making it is this: they take the skin, the entrails, the fins, and the tail of this fish, and cut them into small pieces; these are left to macerate in a sufficient quantity of warm water, and they are all boiled shortly after with a slow fire, until they are dissolved and reduced to a jelly; this jelly is spread upon instruments made for the purpose, so that, drying, it assumes the form of parchment, and, when quite dry, it is then rolled into the form which we see it in the shops.

.

This valuable commodity is principally furnished from Russia, where they prepare great quantities surprisingly cheap. Mr. Jackson, an ingenious! countryman of our own, found out an obvious method of making a glue at home, that answered all the purposes of isinglass; but what with the trouble of

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making it, and perhaps the arts put in practice to undersell him, he was, as I am told, obliged to discontinue the improvement of his discovery. Indeed, it is a vain attempt to manufacture among ourselves those things which may be more naturally and cheaply supplied elsewhere. We have many trades that are unnaturally, if I may so express it, employed among us; who furnish more laboriously those necessaries with which other countries could easily and cheaply supply us. It would be wiser to take what they can thus produce; and to turn our artizans to the increase and manufacture of such productions as thrive more readily among us. Were, for instance, the number of hands that we have now employed in the manufacture of silk, turned to the increase of agriculture, it is probable that the increased quantity of corn thus produced, would be more than an equivalent for the diminution of national wealth in purchasing wrought silk from other countries.

CHAP. VI.

Of Anomalous Cartilaginous Fishes.

OF all others, the cartilaginous class seems to abound with the greatest variety of ill-formed animals, and, if philosophy could allow the expression, we might say, that the cartilaginous class was the class of monsters: in fact, it exhibits a variety of shapeless beings, the deviations of which from the usual form of fishes are beyond the power of words