_Sp. Ch._—Five rows of plates encase the body: the row along the back is most prominent, and contains fifteen shields. The cheeks are flat, the snout terminating in an acute point, remarkably flexible and trunklike in its movements. Four barbels dangle from beneath the snout, situated about mid-distance between its point and the orbit. The mouth is underneath, resembling a huge flabby sucker in the freshly-caught fish. Nevertheless, as his habit is to prowl about the mud and gravel at the bottom, it is in reality the very best kind of mouth that could have been given. The barbels that hang before are clearly delicate feelers, intended to give warning, that game suitable for food—disturbed probably by the flexible nose—is near; the nose is employed to stir up the mud, turn over stones, or in exploring the hiding-places of prey amidst the rocks and heavy boulders. The eyes are small and golden-yellow in the newly-caught fish, but change immediately after death.
The great extent and strength of the pectorals, which are nearly horizontal, show us that, in addition to their acting as oars and rudder, they are also powerful assistants in bringing the great fleshy mouth to bear upon anything discovered by the barbels. Female fish are taken full of roe in the Fraser during the month of June, and sometimes later; but where they deposit the ova or what becomes of the young after leaving the eggs, are mysteries. I never saw a small sturgeon, but have no doubt most of the young fish descend to the sea, although it is equally certain numbers remain entirely in the fresh-water. Madame Sturgeon’s family is by no means a small one: a bushel of eggs is not an unusual quantity for a female fish to yield; a great many thousands, although I do not know how many eggs a bushel contains. The Indians dry these eggs in the sun and devour them with oil, as we eat currants and cream. It would surely pay to prepare cauiare on the Russian plan, even to send it to the English market. A rough kind of isinglass was at one time prepared by the Fraser river Indians and traded by the Hudson’s Bay Company, but even that branch of industry has ceased to flourish since the ‘Golden Age.’ Indians are exceedingly fond of sturgeon-flesh, and usually demand a high price for it.