. Fishes. Fishes. The Ganoids 255 ing smaller streams to spawn. Other sturgeons are marine, ascending fresh waters only for a moderate distance in the spawning season. They range in length from 2^ to 30 feet. All are used as food, although the flesh is rather coarse and beefy. From their large size and abundance they possess great economic value. The eggs of some species are prepared as caviar. The sturgeons are sluggish, clumsy, bottom-feeding fish. The mouth, underneath the long snout, is very protractile, sucker-like, and without teeth. Before it on the under side of the snout are four long
. Fishes. Fishes. The Ganoids 255 ing smaller streams to spawn. Other sturgeons are marine, ascending fresh waters only for a moderate distance in the spawning season. They range in length from 2^ to 30 feet. All are used as food, although the flesh is rather coarse and beefy. From their large size and abundance they possess great economic value. The eggs of some species are prepared as caviar. The sturgeons are sluggish, clumsy, bottom-feeding fish. The mouth, underneath the long snout, is very protractile, sucker-like, and without teeth. Before it on the under side of the snout are four long feelers. Ordinarily the sturgeon feeds on mud and snails with other small creatures, but I have seen. Fig. 189.—Common Sturgeon, Acipenser sturio Mitchill. Potomac River. large nimibers of Eulachon {Thaleichthys) in the stomach of the Columbia River sturgeon {Acipenser transmontanus). This fish and the Eulachon run in the Columbia at the same time, and the sucker-mouth of a large sturgeon will draw into it num- bers of small fishes who may be unsuspiciously engaged in depositing their spawn. In the spawning season in June these clumsy fishes will often leap wholly out of the water in their play. The sturgeons have a rough skin besides five series of bony plates which change much with age and which in very old examples are sometimes lost or absorbed in the skin. The common sturgeon of the Atlantic on both shores is Acipenser sturio. Acipenser huso and numerous other species are found in Russia and Siberia. The great sturgeon of the Columbia is Acipenser transinontanus, and the great sturgeon of Japan Acipenser kikuchii. Smaller species are found farther south, as in the Mediterranean and along the the Carolina coast. Other small species abound in rivers and lakes. Acipenser ruhicundus is found throughout the Great Lake region and the Mississippi Valley, never entering the sea. It is four to six feet long, and at Sandusky, Ohio, in one season 14,000 sturgeons were taken. Pleas
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