Reports to various Correspondents. 1 1 t 



EXTRA-BRITISH (pp. Ill to 122). 



GROUP A. 



Animals captured or slaughtered by Man for Food, or for 

 the use by him in other ways of their skin, bone, fat, 

 or other products. 



Suhleah and Mango Fish (Polynemus). 



In response to a request from the Calcutta Museum for any 

 additional information for their lieport on the " Chief Indian Animal 

 Products and Industries" compiled by the Eeporter on Economic 

 Products to the Government of India (Dr. George Watts), tlic 

 following information was sent on the Mango Fish : — 



Eeference, " Parbury's Oriental Herald," December, 1838, letter 

 on the Suleah Fish of Bengal. 



PolyiiemuH sele, and the isinglass if. affords. The letter states that 

 this lish attains about four feet in length. Meat coarse, converted, 

 when salted, by the natives into " burtah," a piquant relish well 

 known at the breakfast table in Bengal. The bladder may be con- 

 sidered the most valuable part ; it varies in weight from ^ to f of a 

 pound when dried. This fish abounds in the channel creek off Sangor 

 and in the mouths of all the rivers which intersect the Sunderbuns. 



This fish is the rohjnemns srJc of Hamilton's " Fishes of the 

 Ganges." An individual weighing two pounds would yield 65 grains 

 of pure isinglass. When this was written the price of isinglass in 

 India was £1 12s. per pound. 



P. risna. Another species is the " Tupsee " or Mango Fish. The 

 name used for this fish by Hamilton, in his " Fishes of the Ganges," 

 is F. risna — the P. longijilis of Cuvier. Presumably this is the 

 P. paradiseus, Day, referred to in the list. 



