File:Catch of shovel-nosed sturgeon or 'hackleback', dressed and ready for market.jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo14amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
T he bowfin nests among the cat-tails in the shallow water of the marshes
Text Appearing After Image:
Catch of shovel-nosed sturgeon, or for market touch with Mr. Elwell of MacGregor, Iowa, a little city on the opposite side of the river. Mr. Elwell receives quanti- ties of shovel-nose, or " hackleback," as they are locally called, and through him I was able to obtain all specimens needed, as well as a good series of local fishes and much interesting data. The shovel-nose is one of our smallest sturgeons, averaging only two feet in length and about two pounds in weight. The snout is flat and broad, and the tail- fin tapers to a whip, the purpose of which is not clearly under- stood. Bottom-loving fish, they glide through the muddy water, suck- ing up fly larvse and other small organisms which lie on the river bed or they collect in the crevices of sunken snags. As they swim upstream in schools, they are caught in the trammel nets of the fish- erman, who frequently averages two hundred and fifty pounds per day, and who fishes from spring until early winter with the excep- tion of the month of August, when few stur- geon are taken. The flesh is smoked and sold at five cents a pound, while the eggs are made into caviar and shipped east. Eighteen hundred pounds of caviar is the average yearly ship- ment, although as high as thirty-eight hun- dred pounds have been shipped in one year. "hackleback," dressed and ready

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