The marine of the Caspian Sea at present, consists of two frigates of 12 guns each, two cutters, and a transport. There arc besides fifty-six merchant vessels, viz. a pink, a transport, five galliots of about 30 lasts burthen each, and forty-eight schooners from 10 to 3) or •0, and one of 60 lasts. There are moreover 138 •osliiven, or fiat bottomed vessels, employed in fishing and taking seals, cur in the "Mankishlak trade with the Trukhimnes and Bonk harians.
l'he fishery on the Caspian is the most import-mt branch of this business in Russia. Not only does this sea abound with most valuable kit ds of fish ; but it is so commodiously situated in the centre of the empire, it has so much the advantage of easy communications by water, and the trade is prosecuted in so good a method, that no where in the empire is so much bent_ fit obtained in this department, in respect •ida r of internal con sumption or of commerce. In fact. accoruing to the observation of Pallas, the fishery on the Caspian is, in sonic views, as important to Russia as the herring. the cod. and the whale fisheries, are to other maritime pow errs of Europe. That fishery on the northern shores of this sea is partly let out to Astracan merchants, whose great opulence is chiefly founded on it, and partly, in virtue of ancient privileges, belongs to the Uralian Cossacs, who claim this right, not only on the river Ural, but also for a space of 47 miles on each side of it. There are three principal seasons in which the fishing on the Caspian is prosecuted ; the spring, the autumn, and the winter. As the sea is usually free from ice towards the latter end of March, the spring fishing usually begins immediately with the beginning of April. The business is usually undertaken by several contractors, each of whom has his particular station, or vataga, in a separate place, which commonly bears the name of the proprie tor. At these vatagas, the kinds of fish that principally engage attention, are the several kinds of sturgeon, that properly so called, also the beluga and the sevruga. Shads and barbels arc in an inferior degree likewise ob jects of request. The other smaller species of fish, which are found by a different class of adventurers to be well worthy of their care, are by those concerned in the greater fisheries disregarded. Each vataga prepared for the prosecution of this trade is occupied by from 50 to 80, or even 120 men, most of whom carry on a sepa rate trade : there arc also pilots, fishermen, salters, preparers of isinglass and caviare, and others. They have severally their small vessels of various dimensions and constructions, for the conveniency of going out occa sionally to sea ; with a galliot for fetching provisions and salt from Astracan, and for sending away the fish that have been taken. Adjacent to the buildings for the ac commodation of the people employed, several sheds are erected, where the roes are prepared, the isinglass dried, and the stock of fish properly kept. For preserving the salted fish, deep and well-secured ice-cellars of consider able magnitude are dug under ground, which are floored with thick deals, and have large reservoirs lined with planks, in which the fresh fish are pickled in a strong brine. At the two sides of these brine vats, are parts divided off, in which the fish, on being taken out of the pickle, are placed in layers and sprinkled with salt ; be hind the compartments in which the fish are thus laid, the space to the side of the cellar is rammed full of ice, for the better preservation of this easily perishable com modity. The distance of one vataga from another is in
definite ; as are also, in some degree, the bounds in which neighbouring vatagas may fish. The taxes paid by these vatagas to the crown arc rated by their quanti ties of prepared rocs and isinglass ; for every pood of isinglass five rubles, and for a pood of rocs two rubles eighty copecs, being paid into the caisse.
About the beginning of the fishing season in spring, myriads of little fish arc observed pressing towards the shore, of which the obla particularly, a sort of scale-fish, is caught and kept alive in wells to serve the purpose of baiting the hooks, during the continuance of thc season. This little fry is followed by prodigious swarms of raven ous belugas ; the time for the capture of which is seldom longer than two full weeks ; on which account the fisher men are obliged, during that period, to work (lay and night. In good years a vessel, while the swarming lasts, may within 24 hours bring up 50 or more of these large fish. The manner of taking them is by means of a ma chine, consisting of a rope 70 elk in length, to which there are attached 125 lines, each 13 fathom long, with as many large angling hooks. This rope, with the num ber of hooks mentioned, is technically termed a nest ; and 30 of these nests tied together commonly belong to a machine, which is therefore several hundred fathoms in length. Between every two nests there is tied a stone of some pounds weight : the two ends of a whole machine are furnished with wooden anchors ; and generally the adjustments are in all respects such that it may not easily be removed out of its place, and that no fish, when once caught, may have it in its power to escape. After they have been laid, these machines are visited twice in the day ; the hooks are cautiously taken up along the rope; and a cord being passed through the gills of the fish caught, they are let down again into the water, in order that they may be brought on shore alive. They are now dragged with hooks to the beach, which is laid with planks, and are cut up in the following order : the lower part of the stomach, with the guts, are thrown away ; the fleshy gullet is salted for eating ; the roe, which lies through the whole body adjoining to the entrails, is ta ken out with the hand and cast into tubs, in which it is carried away by the caviare makers ; the float, or sound, which runs along the whole back, is given to the isin glass makers ; then the cartilage of the back being cut off in order that the dorsal sinews may be extracted ; these are washed, hung upon poles, and dried in the air ; and the entrails being removed, the fat adhering about the milt and to the sides is scraped off with knives, collected, boiled clown, and cleansed, in which condition, having a good taste, it is used occasionally instead of but ter or oil. The fish, after these preparatory processes, are brought into the cellar above described, where they are first laid to pickle in brine, then strewed with salt, and laid up in courses one above another, to be preserv ed for use. These belugas are frequently of a great size. One is mentioned which is said to have measured 8A arshines in length, (each arshine being 28 English inches,) to have weighed 70 pood or 2800 pounds, and to have yielded 20 pood of roe. They are not uncommonly taken of 1000 or 1500 lb. weight.