86 Production of Isinglass on the Coasts of India. 



viduals are employed, and acquire wealth either by fishing and con- 

 veying the fish on rafts or sledges, or by selling them in the mar- 

 kets. 



The whole value of the Sturgeons of different lands caught in 

 the waters of Astrakhan and the Caspian Sea, amounts to the annual 

 sum of 1,760,405 rubles.* To this must be added the value of the 

 Persian fishery at Sallian, which, when established only a few 

 years, yielded annually upwards of 300,000 rubles. " It might 

 be still more lucrative, if the injudicious fishermen would preserve 

 the great number of fish, instead of throwing them into the sea as 

 useless, after having collected their roes and air-bladders. 



" The most valuable production of the Sturgeons," Pallas con- 

 tinues, " is the Isinglass prepared from their air-bladders. Accord- 

 ing to the list of exports printed by the English factory at St. 

 Petersburg, there has been exported in British vessels, from 1753 

 to 1786, from 2,000 to 3,000 ; in later years usually upwards of 

 4,000, and in 1788, even 6,850 poods of that article. The exporta- 

 tion to other countries has also amounted, within these few years, 

 to above 1,000 poods. The large and almost incredible demand, 

 has, at the same time, tended to increase the price of the different 

 qualities of this commodity at Astrakhan itself ; and on the exchange 

 of St. Petersburg, whence Isinglass of the best quality, so late as 

 the year 1778, did not exceed the price of 36 rubles a pood, it has 

 lately been advanced to 90 rubles." 



Isinglass being prepared from the swimming-bladder of certain 

 fishes, and this being an organ generally, though not universally, 

 diffused through that class of the animal kingdom, it seems remarka- 

 ble that it should not be more generally employed for the purpose of 

 yielding so valuable a commercial article. The fact, however, is, 

 that though Isinglass of the finest quality, and in the largest quanti- 

 ties is yielded by, it is not confined to, the Sturgeon tribe, for even 

 in Russia the Silu?*us Glanis, Cyprini, and Barbel yield it, and we 

 meet in commerce with Brazilian, New York, and Hudson's Bay 

 Isinglass. 



* Products of the fisheries of the great Sturgeon amount to 



Little Sturgeon 



Sevrugas . . . < 



341,535 

 ,497,515 

 921,323 



