Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1922-07-05
CALLS STURGEON RELIC
OF THE EARLY PERIOD
PiscatoriaI Expert Says He Re-
tains Some PrimevaI Physi-
cal characteristics.

AS fishes go the sturgeon IL not with
out interest. Because of his size and
appearance, he has been much ad-
mired. Connoisseurs of Ash have found
him much to their taste, delectable
and delicious morsel.
"The sturgeon" said John r. Mich
OILS. head of the Department of Recent
Fishes at the Museum of Natural His
tory of New York. rs Il relic of the
past. In the course of geological time
before the modern hard boned. spiny
fishes had been evolved. the waters
of the earth contained soft skeleton
species which though not particularly
related To one another have been
ella ssed together I'm group called ga
noids. Remnants of this tribe, Of which
the sturgeon is one. still remain scat
tered over the world"
The Commonest sturgeon s large
fish reaching length of eight feet
which enters rivers of Europe and
America from the sea, and IL valued
for the Caviarc which IL made from
it's eggs. lts body instead OF being
covered with thin. overlapping, elastic
scales like those Of more modern fishes,
Ia armed with rows of hard bony
plates Its snout Is long and pointed,
with a mouth on the lower side OF
the head like that of n shark, and the
upper lobe of its tail I'm ia much larger
and better developed than the lower.
! This unsymmctriCal tail Is itself n
relic of the past.
Tho symmetrical tail OF modern
fishes. n more efficient propeller, has
been of the whole. 80 that in some Of
the structural axis of the tail To form
an upper lobe, later development OF n
lower lobe To correspond and the so
Indication OF the whole. 90 that In
some Of the more modern forms traces
OF the process have been cffaced The
sharks and the surgeons. however,
still show an intermediate condition
Surgeons are bottom flshes eating
small fish. crabs. &c. They move
through the waters rather sMRgshly
Besides the larger commercial species
"A small one, the short nOsed sturgeon
sometimes swims up the North River
in May. a third kind the lake stur
geon. more reddish brown In color. Is
land-lo"ked in the Great Lakes sys
tenn. II reaches about 100 pounds
T weight. Still another enters the river,
| VI AAlf ~ liit NdSAs anu mas utFi
, known to grow over ten feet I'm Length
8 and weigh 1000 pounds.
! Locally the sturgeon has been q
considerable economical importa nee
but is badly depleted Nevprth less
despite everlasting and pollution q
the river. an occasional individual
passes through the Narrows. leavin
Manhattan Island on its right, an
=, shapes it's ancestral course upstream
In America CaViare ~ also pro
ducod from the eggs of a distautly re-
" lated fresh-water fish, the spoonful q
= the Mississippi River. This fish ha
- no scales or plates Of any sort. II
e snout Is affixed TO "A long. fiat structur
(. with a broadened, rounded. spool
h shaped end. the function of which
IS uncertain. There il a habitat grou
Q, in the Museum of Natural Histor
- which shows this remarkable fis
rs swimming in the sluggish. mudd
ir waters OF the Lower Mississippi va
Of ley. Although fossiliZed remains
l. similar fishes that lived in the pa:
Dr ages have been dug from the cart
20 the spoonbill's only living relation .
ir a large fish inhabltating the water
s.. Of China.-New York Times.