. Elements of zoology, or, Natural history of animals / ed. by Reese. Zoology. 2^2 ZOOLOGY. the Osseous Fishes and the Shark tribe, which may be regarded as the types of the Cartilaginous division. Sturgeons are chiefly river fish, and from their large size, vast numbers, and the quantity of food and other important products they afford, are extremely valuable toman. The common sturgeon of the British shores is about six feet long, and its flesh is somewhat like veal. The rivers falling into the Black and Caspian Seas, however, produce several other species, of which the largest not unfre
. Elements of zoology, or, Natural history of animals / ed. by Reese. Zoology. 2^2 ZOOLOGY. the Osseous Fishes and the Shark tribe, which may be regarded as the types of the Cartilaginous division. Sturgeons are chiefly river fish, and from their large size, vast numbers, and the quantity of food and other important products they afford, are extremely valuable toman. The common sturgeon of the British shores is about six feet long, and its flesh is somewhat like veal. The rivers falling into the Black and Caspian Seas, however, produce several other species, of which the largest not unfrequently attains the length of fifteen feet, one individual being recorded as having weighed 3000 lbs. The roe of the sturgeon fur- nishes the caviar, so much esteemed in Russia; and its air-bladder furnishes isinglass. The chimsera, of which a northern species, known as the king of the herrings, often accompanies herring shoals, is a genus intermediate be- tween the sturgeon and the sharks, having the gills fixed, but having only one external gill opening, covered by the rudiment of an operculum; this leads, however, to five in- terior passages. 449. The section of Chondropterygii Branchiis Fixis is divided into two orders, the first having teeth, and the second having the mouth formed into a sucker. Order VIII.—Selachii. 450. This order only comprises one family, that of Sharks and Rays. A great metamorphosis here takes place in the condition of the bones of the mouth, those which are commonly termed the jaws, in which the teeth are fixed, being very different in position and character in osseous fishes, and the true jawbones not being here de- veloped. This tribe is distinguished from other fishes by many peculiarities: in several members of it the young are produced alive, the eggs being hatched within the body of the parent; and in others the eggs are enclosed in a peculiar horny casing, which has often long tendril- like appendages, that coil around and attach them to ot
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