Production of Isinglass on the Coasts of India. 89 



of the fish yielding the Isinglass, he was surprised to find it to 

 be a species of Polynemus, or paradise fish, of which several species 

 are known for their excellence as articles of food. Of these he ad- 

 duces the Mango Fish, or Tupsee Mutchee of the Bengalese {Polyne- 

 mus Risua, Buch.) as a familiar instance, though this is remarkable 

 as being without a swimming-bladder t* while the other species have 

 it large and stout. These occur in the seas of warm climates ; five 

 are described by Dr. Buchanan in his Gangetic fishes, but only two 

 are of considerable size, occurring in the estuary of the Hoogly, and 

 probably in those of the Ganges. One of these, with another large 

 species is also described by Dr. Russell in his work on the fishes of 

 the Madras Coast. That figured in tab. 184, and called maga- 

 boshee is Polynemus uronemus of Cuvier, while the maga-jellee, tab. 

 183, named P. tetradactylus , by Shaw, is probably P. Teria of 

 Buchanan. Both, but especially the first, Russell says, are esteemed 

 for the table, and called row ball by the English. 



Mr. McClelland ascertained that the species affording the Isinglass, 

 is the Ploynemus Sele of Buchanan, sele or sulea of the Bengalese, 

 described but not figured in his work on the Gangetic fishes (p. 226). 

 Mr. M. has, however, published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal, a figure from Dr. Buchanan's unpublished collection of 

 drawings, which are kept at the East-India Company's Botanic 

 Garden at Calcutta. This figure, he states, conveys an excellent 

 representation, about half the size of a specimen, from which 

 he obtained sixty-six grains of Isinglass. Dr. Buchanan describes 

 the Sele as affording a light nourishing food, like most of the fishes 

 which he has called bola, but as inferior to many of them in flavour. 

 It is common in the estuaries of the Ganges, and is often found 

 weighing from twenty to twenty -four pounds ;f and may perhaps be 

 the Emoi of Otaheiti, the Polynemus lineatus of La Cepede, the P. 

 plebeius of Broussonet.J This, according to Bloch, is by the English 



* We have since found this to be likewise the case with Polynemus quadri- 

 Jilis, Cuv. — Ed. 



f Its ordinary size when in season is from 3 to 4 feet in length, and from 50 to 

 100 lbs.— Ed. 



X The Polynemus Emoi, P. lineatus, Polynemus plebeius, Polynemus sele of 

 authors, are different names for one and the same species, called Suleah by the 



N 



