WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 



come im mediately after them, and require little description in 

 Bombay. The native name for the white pomflet is " Sarga," and 

 for the black " Halwa." The Portuguese name is " Pumpano/' and 

 a fish of this uame is a delicacy in the American " Gulf States " and 

 is brought in ice to New York, where it looks and tastes very 

 much as a pomflet does in Poona. Whether it is a true Stromaieus 

 or not I cannot say. The " Pumpano " was mentioned as a good 

 fish of this coast by Van Lin?choten iu the sixteenth century. It may 

 be worth while to remark that it is not a flat-fish in the same 

 sense as turbots and soles are, but swims upright on edge like a 

 John Dorey, which, indeed, is also more like a pomflet in flavour 

 than any other fish of Northern Seas. 



The monsoon fishery for both pomflets, but especially the black, 

 is conducted on the Bombay coast at considerable risk ; large open 

 "machwas" (fishing smacks) remaining out of sight of land often 

 for two or three days. Great care is shown in fitting out these boats, 

 and they carry double or treble crews, but their return is always 

 awaited with anxiety, and the fish are as much "lives o' men" 

 as any herring in the North Sea. (Query, " pomfret" or " pomflet"?) 

 Pretty close to the pomflets, though more nearly allied to the next 

 family, are the so-called " Dolphins, " of modern sea-folk, famous 

 for changing colour in dying. They are oceauic fish, and not 

 common here. I have no specimens from this coast, nor any 

 vernacular name for them. I need hardly say that the classic 

 Dolphin was a porpoise. 



I have dined in Bombay, off and on, for eighteen years without 

 ever seeing a mackerel on table there, and a great many people who 

 find "cod" all over the world would tell you that there are no mac- 

 kerel here. The fact is, however, that a mackerel closely resembling 

 the British species is common near Bombay in the cold weather, and 

 has very much the habits of its northern relative, especially that 

 of playing in schools on the' surface. Only, it will not here 

 take any sort of a trailing bait or fly ; nor have I ever been able to 

 catch any sea fish near Bombay by that most sporting- method. It 

 is said to answer well enough down the coast. The Indian mackerel 

 {Scomber microlepidotus) is smaller than the British fish, seldom 

 reaching one foot long ; when fresh it is a very good fish indeed, 

 but keeps badly. 



It is taken in seines all along the coast, on the flat strands, 

 and must, I should think, often be so taken in Back Bay j and 



