History of the Local Names of Cape fish. 217 
Bay, and the Albacore—a name applied by seafaring men to 
other species of this genus, but which has been appropriated in 
South Africa by quite a different member of the Mackerel tribe, 
viz., Seriola lalandu. This seems quite unnecessary, as it is 
already provided with a well-known name, ‘“‘ Yellow tail ’’—Dutch 
‘“‘Geelstaart.”” As if this were not enough, it has also an extra- 
ordinary number of corruptions or variations of the name, viz., 
Albukure (Valentyn), Alfakoor (Cape Town), Albert-Koord (Hoetje’s 
Bay), and Halfcord (Pappe). After this we are not surprised to 
find the same fish reported from Australia under the alias of “ King 
ish 
Two other names remain to be mentioned in this category if I am 
right in their derivations. These are the Leer-visch and the Panga. 
As to the former the word Leer is evidently the Dutch leer or 
leder (English leather). I cannot find that any fish bears this name 
in Holland, but a passage in Valentyn’s account of the Fishes of the 
East Indies (1726) seems to throw some light on the subject. He 
describes (p. 339) a fish resembling our Leer-fish (Lichia amia) and 
which he calls by this name on account of its “thick brown skin, 
almost like leather.’ Probably the Cape Leer-fish was so named by 
the early Dutch sailors, who brought the name from the Hast 
Indies, and were struck with the similarity in the leathery skin of 
each. 
So far as I can ascertain there is not a single name which the 
Dutch have taken over from the natives of this country. The 
‘‘ Strand Loopers” whom the early settlers found eking out a 
precarious living by fishing and gathering shell-fish on the shore, 
and who must have had names for the various marine animals in 
which they were particularly interested from a practical point of 
view, have left no historical trace in fish nomenclature, nor have 
the various tribes of Hottentots, Kaffirs, ke. However closely the 
early settlers may have come in contact with the aborigines in 
commercial relations, there is evidence that in this respect they 
showed very little assimilative tendency, and we look in vain here 
for any trace of the presence of the lowly people, whom the Dutch 
found in possession of the land. It might have been expected that 
the Malay slaves whom the Dutch brought from their possessions in 
the East would have retained some of their native names, more 
especially as they soon became pre-eminently the fishing section of 
the community. I have found, however, only one name which can 
with any probability be traced to such an origin. This is the name 
“Panga” (Pagrus lamarius). The fish to which this name is applied 
bears a strong resemblance to the common Silver-fish, and at 
