CARTILAGINOUS FISHES. 277 



and not with a pestle ; this done, they put it into a canvass bag, let- 

 ting the liquor drain from it; lastly, they put it into a tub, with holes 

 .n the bottom, so that, if there be any moisture still remaining, it may 

 run out : then it is pressed down, and covered up close for use. 



But the Huso or Isinglass Fish furnishes a still more valuable com 

 tnodity. This fish is caught in great quantities in the Danube, from 

 the months of October to January : it is seldom under fifty pounda 

 weight, and often above four hundred : its flesh is soft, glutinous, and 

 flabby ; but it is sometimes salted, which makes it better tasted, and 

 then it turns red like salmon. It is for the commodity it furnishes 

 that it is chiefly taken, [singlass is of a whitish substance, inclining 

 to yellow, done up into rolls, and so exported for use. It is very well 

 known as serviceable, not only in medicine, but many arts. The var 

 nisher, the wine merchant, and even the clothier know its uses 

 and very great sums are yearly expended upon this single article of 

 commerce. The manner of making it is this; they take the skin 

 the entrails, the fins, and the tail of this fish, and cut them into small 

 pieces ; these are left to macerate in a sufficient quantity of warm wa- 

 ter, and they are all boiled shortly after with a slow fire, until they 

 are dissolved and reduced to a jelly ; this jelly is spread upon instru 

 ments made for the purpose, so, that in drying, it assumes the form 

 of parchment, and when quite dry, it is then rolled in the form which 

 we see it in the shops. 



This valuable commodity is principally furnished from Russia, 

 where they prepare great quantities surprisingly cheap. Mr. Jackson, 

 an ingenious countryman of our own, found out an obvious method 

 of making a glue at home that answered all the purposes of isinglass ; 

 but what with the. trouble of makijig it, and perhaps the arts put in 

 practice to undersell him, he was, as I am told, obliged to discontinue 

 the improvement of his discovery. Indeed, it is a vain attempt to 

 manufacture among ourselves those things which may be more natu- 

 rally and cheaply supplied elsewhere. We have many trades that are 

 unnaturally, if I may so express it, employed among us ; who furnish 

 more laboriously those necessaries with which other counties could 

 easily and cheaply supply us. It would be wiser to take what they can 

 thus produce; and to turn our artisans to the increase and manufac- 

 ture of such productions as thrive more readily among us. Were, for 

 instance, the number of hands that we have now employed in the 

 manufacture of silk, turned to the increase of agriculture, it is pro- 

 bable that the increased quantity of corn thus produced, would be 

 more than an equivalent for the diminution of national wealth in pur 

 chasing wrought silk from other countries. 



