402 Mr. McClelland on Isinglass in Polynemus sele. 



while that organ is quite absent in the Mango-fish itself, though a 

 general character of nearly all others. 



I had come to the determination never to describe single or de- 

 tached species of fish ; but as the object of this paper is to elucidate 

 the commercial side of a question already before the public, I shall 

 not pretend to offer any remarks on the scientific part of the subject, 

 which is indeed beyond my province, as my observations have hi- 

 therto been confined to the fresh water species of India. 



The species affording the Isinglass is the Polynemus sele, Buch. ; 

 Sele, or Sulca, of the Bengalese, described, but not figured, in the 

 Gangetic Fishes ; but if Buchanan's drawings had not been placed 

 under a bushel since 1815, probably this useful discovery would 

 have been sooner made, and better understood by the writer in Par- 

 bury's Oriental Herald, to whom we are indebted for it. 



The figure [given in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,] 

 from Buchanan's unpublished collection at the Botanic Garden, 

 conveys an excellent representation, about half-size, of a specimen 

 from which I obtained 66 grains of Isinglass : but as the writer in 

 Parbury's Oriental Herald states that from half a pound to three 

 quarters of a pound is obtained from each fish, we may suppose 

 either that P. sele attains a much greater size than 24 pounds, the 

 limit given to it by Buchanan, or, that the Isinglass is also afforded 

 by a far larger species, namely Polynemus teria, Buch. or Teria 

 bhangan of the Bengalese, Maga jellee of Russell, which Buchanan 

 was informed sometimes equals three hundred and twenty pounds 

 avoirdupois, and which I frequently have seen of an uniform size, 

 that must have been from fifty to a hundred pounds at least, load- 

 ing whole cavalcades of hackeries at once on their way to the Cal- 

 cutta bazar, as I have already stated, during the cold season, when 

 they would consequently seem to be very common. 



Although the sound, or natatory vessel is the part of the fish that 

 would afford the principal inducement to form fisheries, one of the 

 obligations that speculators should be obliged to enter into with the 

 Government is, to cure all parts of such fishes as might be taken for 

 their sound. Considering the scarcity of fish in many parts of India, 

 and the great, I may say unlimited demand for it in some parts of 

 the country even when badly preserved, as well as the excellence of 

 the flesh of all the Polynemi, the curing of these fishes might prove 

 no less profitable to the parties themselves, than it would unques- 

 tionably be to the country. I was happy to find the attention of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society directed to the subject of curing fishes in 



