116 



in question, I lose no time in laying before the Society : — ' .... I 

 have now to mention what is of far greater importance in another 

 point of view, namely, that the Suleah Fish described in a recent 

 number of Parbury's Oriental Herald is the Polynemus Sele of Ha- 

 milton. I have examined that species, and found an individual of 

 two pounds weight to yield sixty-five grains of pure isinglass, an ar- 

 ticle which here sells at sixteen rupees (1/. 12s.) per lb. Refer to 

 your dissections of Polynemi ; mark those with large air-vessels to be 

 isinglass, requiring no other preparation than merely removing the 

 vascular membrane that covers them, washing with lime-water, and 

 drj'Ing in the sun. You know the size these fishes attain, and the 

 number in which they abound in the Sunderbuns ; you also know 

 the method of taking them, and can therefore state to what extent 

 isinglass may be obtained in India. I have sent a paper on the sub- 

 ject to the Journal of the Asiatic Society, which I will send you by 

 the next overland despatch.' 



" Perceiving bjf this that the subject has been taken up by a na- 

 turalist of Mr. McClelland's rank, and that we ere long may expect 

 his observations embodied in a paper from his hand, I think it suf- 

 ficient to confine myself to a few general remarks upon those species 

 of Polynemus which have come under my actual examination while 

 I was attached as surgeon to the Hon. Company's survey of the 

 sea-face of the Gangetic Delta. 



" Tlie species best known is the Polynemus risua, Hamilton ; Pol. 

 longifilis, Cuvier ; the Tupsee or Mango Fish of the Anglo-Indians ; 

 this inhabits the Bay of Bengal and the estuaries of the Ganges, 

 but enters the mouths of the rivers, even higher up than Calcutta, 

 during the breeding- season (April and May), when the fish is con- 

 sidered in its highest perfection, and is greedily sought as a great 

 delicacy. This species is the smallest, for its length seldom exceeds 

 eight or nine inches, and one and a half to two inches in depth. 

 Polynemus aureus and Topsui, Hamilton, are species closely allied to 

 this. 



" Polynemus sele, Hamilton, P.plebtius, Broussonnais, P. Uneatus, 

 Lacep^de, is the Suleah Fish mentioned in Parbury's Oriental Herald, 

 the same which Mr. McClelland submitted to examination. This 

 species, as well as another closely allied to P. quadrifilis, Cuvier, 

 which I have dissected, figured, and described, under the name of 

 P. Salliah (Saccolih^, appears equally plentiful, in shoals, all the 

 year round in the estuaries of the Ganges, and is appreciated by 

 Europeans and natives for its excellent flavour. Both species at- 

 tain a size from three to four feet in length, and eight to ten inches 

 in depth. 



" In a paper which I had the honour of communicating to the 

 Royal Asiatic Society*, the genus Polynemus, among others, was 

 pointed out by me as forming an article of food fit for curing, and 

 easily procurable in almost any quantity : by the discovery that it 



* Published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, No. ix., August 1838, p. ](i5. 



