viii INTRODUCTION. 



that period on the fishes of the Oriental Seas. Since then no individual work on the ichthyology 

 of the Seas of India has been produced, with the exception of one in 1834 by Bennett, describing 

 thirty fishes of Ceylon. Dr. Hamilton Buchanan, pubhshed in 1822 The Fishes of the Ganges, in 

 which 269 fresh water and estuary species are given : Gbay and Hardwicke's magnificent Illustrations 

 of Indian Zoology, commenced in 1830, were never completed : even Colonel Stkes's Report to the 

 Court of Directors of the East India Company, accompanied by beautiful drawings of some fish 

 which he had discovered in the Dukhan, was only rescued from oblivion by being pubhshed by the 

 Zoological Society of London, and other Societies have saved to the public ichthyological papers by 

 McClelland, Cantor, and Jeedon. In contrast to this, the Dutch East India Company, alive to the 

 importance of this branch of zoology in the East, is at the present time giving to the world the 

 splendid and scientific Atlas Ichthyologique, the fruit of the patient and persevering labours carried 

 on for many years by Dr. Bleeker of the Dutch army. 



But setting aside the scientific value of Ichthyology, the question arises whether materials fitted 

 for manufactures and even food most valuable to the inhabitants of India are not lost, owing to a 

 neglect and ignorance of the wealth contained in its waters. It is only of late years, since animal 

 oils have become so dear, partially due to a deficiency of that of the whale, that attention has been 

 directed to the immense shoals of Sardines, Sardinella Neohoivii, which are found off Malabar and 

 Ceylon. It is probably this fish, of which Friar Odoric, who visited Ceylon about a.d. 1320, observed, 

 that " there are fishes in those seas that come swimming towards the said country in such abun- 

 dance, that for a great distance into the sea nothing can be seen but the backs of fishes, which, 

 casting themselves on the shore, do suffer men for the space of three daies to come and take as 

 many of them as they please." (Hakluyt, ii. p. 57.) Nieuhoff recorded (Ed. a.d. 1673) that they 

 were abundant, and Dussumier about 1827 observed that they were employed for manuring the 

 rice-fields and cocoa-nut trees, but were too fat to salt well. In fact, it may be safely asserted that 

 owino- to ignorance of their existence and uses, Sardines, (Charlay, Malayalim), until within the 

 last few years, were mostly captured to manure the trees and land with, or for the purpose of 

 feeding pigs and poultry, the number consumed by the population being trifling in comparison 

 with the amount taken: whilst the Spratella fimbriata, also known as a Sardine, {Cuttay charlay, 

 Mai.), is much preferred for food, as well as being adapted for salting. 



It appears to be but little known that Isinglass not only can be, but is, prepared in large 

 quantities in Malabar, from whence it is exported to Bombay under the name of " Fish sounds," 

 or " Fish maws/' and eventually finds its way to China. 



Salt fish is also exported in rather considerable quantities — a trade apparently susceptible of 

 great increase, and one which must at a future date become most important to the coffee planters 

 along the Western Ghauts, for this kind of food is in great request amongst the Coolies employed 

 as agricultural labourers, and the carriage which brings down coffee from the interior rc-conveys 

 a large amount. 



