Mr. McClelland on Isinglass in Polynemus sele. 403 



India by Dr. Cantor, (vide Proceedings, 21st April, 1838) but a 

 something was then wanting to be known in order to give a direct 

 inducement to the undertaking*. I therefore regard the discovery 

 of the Ichthyocolla of commerce in one of the larger Polynemi of 

 India as a circumstance eminently calculated to direct attention to 

 a promising and almost unlooked for source of enterprise. We first 

 of all require to know whether more Polynemi than one afford it, 

 and to be fully acquainted with the habits and the methods already 

 employed for taking such as do. Polynemus sele, Buch. is the species 

 I examined and found to contain it ; but this species is supposed to 

 be a variety only of Polynemus lineatus, which is very common on 

 all the shores to the eastward ; it therefore becomes a question of 

 some importance to determine whether P. lineatus yields the same 

 valuable article, and if it be really common to the eastward ; if so, 

 it seems strange that the Chinese should send for it to the Hoogly. 

 Next, do the Pol. Emoi and PoL plebeius, supposed by Buchanan to 

 correspond with his Sele, contain the same valuable substance .^ and 

 do either of Russell's species, namely, the Maga booshee and Maga 

 jellee, (Indian Fishes, 183, 184,) yield it? These are questions 

 easily determined along our coasts by merely opening such fish as 

 correspond with the one figured, and ascertaining whether they con- 

 tain an air vessel or not, and whether that vessel if present be large 

 or small. Mergui, Batavia, Singapore, Tranquebar, Madras, and 



* Should Dr. Cantor still be in London, I would recommend those who 

 may be interested in the important question of Isinglass to consult him, as 

 no one is so competent to afford information regarding the fish by which that 

 article is yielded in India. He will, I am confident, on a re-examination 

 of his notes regarding the Polynemi, readily distinguish those with large 

 sounds, and be able to afford more valuable information regarding their 

 habits, and the quantities in which they are procurable, than could be ex- 

 pected from any one who had not devoted his thoughts to the subject, du- 

 ring a survey of the place in which these fishes occur. I am not sure that 

 the species of Polynemus Dr. Cantor particularly refers to in his paper as 

 the Salliah, or Saccolih, is not the very fish that affords Isinglass ; if so, it 

 appears to be considered by Dr. Cantor as a new species, and his notes will 

 probably afford all that it is essential to know regarding its habits. Thus, 

 as Sir J. E. Smith somewhere observed, " the naturalist who describes a new 

 species, however trifling it may seem, knows not what benefit that species 

 may yet confer on mankind." 



In an interesting account of Kurachee by Lieut. Carloss, read at the last 

 anniversary Meeting of the Bombay Geographical Society, cod sounds and 

 sharks' fins are mentioned among the exports from that place, and fishing is 

 said to be carried on to a considerable extent along the coast of Sinde. As 

 however the Cod, Morrlma vulgaris, Cuv,, is quite unknown in the Indian 

 Seas, the species from which the sounds alluded to by Lieut. Carloss are 

 taken are no doubt Polynemi, the larger species of which are sometimes 

 called by the English, Rock-Cod. It will be curious to learn if the Chinese 

 have monopolised this trade on the coast of Sinde as well as in the Hoogly. 



