BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 195 



sought after and valued in China. Not only has Malaysia been 

 a source of this trade, but the Chinese dealers at Penang, Malacca 

 and Singapore, have bought up isinglass from Bombay, Ceylon, 

 Madras, Bengal, Tenasserim and Manila for export to China. The 

 Indian specimens, however, which include those of Malaysia, are 

 not highly esteemed. Most of them have an unpleasant fishy 

 odor, which unfits them for domestic use, and greatly reduces their 

 commercial value. They consist of an unopened swimming 

 bladder, flattened and dried. The shape is roughly oval, from 

 seven to nine inches long, three inches wide, the largest weighing 

 a little over a quarter of a pound. They are dark in color and 

 have a strong fishy odor. Another kind (East Indian leaf-ising- 

 lass), is merely the sac laid open and dried. It is wider and 

 thicker than the last. 



The following is a list made by Dr. Theodore Cantor of the 

 Malayan fishes which yield isinglass. The list was made in 1850, 

 when the scientific nomenclature of fishes was in a very unsatis- 

 factory state. Dr. Cantor's names and identification are often 

 wrong, and in rectifying them his names have been preserved for 

 reference. 



MALAYAN FISHES YIELDING ISINGLASS. 



Lates calcariper, Bloch. Malay name Ikan siyakup. This 

 fish is found in the seas, back-waters and mouths of tidal rivers in 

 the East, from the mouths of the Indian Rivers to the Malay 

 Archipelago, Australia and China. I have caught this fish with 

 a line in the Mary River 200 miles from Port Darwin in North- 

 Australia, and it sometimes finds its way into the rivers of the 

 noi'th-eastern coast. I have also captured it in the upper waters 

 of the Mitchell River, near the Palmer River gold field, and many 

 hundred miles from the mouth of the stream in the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria. It is easily taken with a hook, using a small land- 

 lizard, a prawn, or a moth, as bait. For eating tliey are liighly 

 esteemed, though not amongst the best table fishes. They yield 

 isinglass in the straits, but little is collected, because the fish is 



