When the shoaling of the beluga has ceased, it is immediately succeeded by the train of the sevrugas, which appears only once in the year, and also lasts not much above 2 weeks, but during that short space it is exceedingly numerous. At one vataga, with a favoura ble sea breeze, it is usual to catch in a season sixteen and sometimes twenty thousand of these fish. The nets made use of for this purpose are so thick, that the machines are only a span wide : 25 of them are tied together, and laid at the depth at most of a fathom, as the sevrugas frequent chiefly the shallow places. These fishes seldom exceed arshines in length ; but their roes, as well as their sounds, are much more esteemed than those of the beluga, and consequently bear a higher price. The flesh is partly salted down, and partly dried in the sun.
The sevrugas, as has been observed, make for the bays only in the spring season, which is the time at which they spawn. At this period the belugas are without rocs, and proceed thither only in quest of prey. In the autumn and the winter, those latter fish there fore return thither again, either with a view to spawn ing, or to pass the winter. These two species of stur geon, seeking, for the purpose mentioned, fresh or moderately salt water, repair annually at the stated sea sons not only to the rivers, but also to the gulfs and bites of the sea ; whereas the real sturgeon, requiring on the like occasions still greater freshness of water, proceeds always directly to the motiths of the rivers without tarry ing in the bays. These fish, therefore, are caught 0111 or chiefly at those vatagas, which arc at the mouths of the Volga, and on the liter itself; and a sturgeon is such a rarity at the fisheries on the bays of the sea, that, by a very ancient custom, it is the property of the person by whom it is drawn out of the Nrau r.
The autumn capture for the beluga, begins in the middle of September and continues through all October. The winter capture of the same description of fishes, begins as soon as the ice is set in on the sea, and lasts the whole of that season. The same machine is used for the purpose as formerly, but it is now set under the Ice, apertures being with that view cut in it at the distance severally of 8 paces asunder, through which the rope is introduced by means of long poles. Where two nests are tied together, the machine is fastened to a cross pole, which rests on the brink of the aperture. For bait, there is provided a sufficient stock of obla fish to last during the winter, which are previously salted, with a view to their preservation. The betugas caught, are conveyed
over the ice on sledges to the vataga, immediately frozen fresh, and carried to Astracan.
Other fisheries of the same descriptions with those now enumerated, and these also of considerable impor tance, are established on the rivers which run into the Caspian, particularly on the Volga and the Ural. The seal capture, which is carried on by the more opulent part of the Astracan merchants in the Caspian Sea, is found to be cry profitable. Those animals arc here very numerous. They crawl upon the islands, where the fishermen kill them with long clubs. One is hardly dispatched, when others come to his assistance and share his fate. They arc exceedingly tenacious of life, and will enduro more than 30 hard blows before they die. They will even live for several days after having received many mortal wounds. They are most terrified by fire and smoke, and, as soon as they perceive them, retreat with the utmost expedition to the sea. They become extremely fat, so as to look rather like oil-bags than animals. The principal seasons for taking them are the spring and the autumn. .Alany small vessels, at these seasons, go out from Astracan in quest of them ; and those which are killed, being immediately gutted and powdered with salt, are sent thither, where they arc flay ed, and their tallow melted. A sort of grey soap is here made of this fat, mixed with potashes, which is much valued for its property of cleansing, and taking grease out of woollen stuffs. The inhabitants of .Astracan, by salting their seals in the manner mentioned, immediately on the spot, gain this advantage, that the tallow is much cleaner and better than that of the seals taken at Arch angel, or other places where a different mode of pro cedure is adopted.
Besides the great vatagas, the proprietors of then, have fishing huts here and there on the sea coasts, where there is no capture of sturgeons, at which, mostly in summer, shad and barbels are taken with drag-nets. These two kinds of fish do not go into the rivers at that season, but keep about. the s( a shore, where they find a better nourishment. The shad here usually weigh 8 pood, and the barbel 1.1. pooch The former sort of fish are extremely fat in summer : their roes are thrown away ; but of the sounds an ordinary sort of fish glue is made.