Note 1 — Chapter X · FROM TOBOLSK TO TOMSK.

The fish of the Obi are generally pike, perch, bleak, and a kind of red mullet, and are of less importance than the migratory fish from the sea. These are chiefly the sturgeon, the nelma, and muksum, several kinds of salmon, and the herring. In the first weeks of June, when the ice breaks up, they commence their ascent of the river, avoiding the rapid parts, the quick swimmers soon getting ahead of the rest: 30 miles below Obdorsk they form shoals, and have all passed in a week, by which time, 150 miles higher, the quickest salmon arrive. The nelma comes two days later, but the sturgeon not till five days afterwards. Erman reckons this annual migration of fish to be at the lowest computation 26,000,000.