Production of Isinglass on the Coasts of India. 93 



time immemorial been supplied with Isinglass from Bengal. He 

 * says, that when in Calcutta he was informed that the natives of 

 the eastern countries were in the habit of coming through the Sun- 

 derbuns to a large village, near the salt-water lake, six miles south- 

 east of Calcutta. There they obtain as much as 800 to 900 maunds 

 of this Isinglass for the China market, and pay for it 25 to 40 rupees 

 per maund. The Chinese, it is surmised, use it for their soups, 

 glues, &c. It is imported in the same state as specimen No. 1 . It 

 was at this village that both the samples sent were purchased. The 

 Chinese are said also, in one account, to bring back to Calcutta the 

 Isinglass which they had exported from its neighbourhood, but in an 

 improved form, and at a considerable advance of price. 



Isinglass, the produce of Bengal, though apparently unknown to 

 the merchants and European residents of Calcutta, has been celebra- 

 ted in China from the earliest times. Dr. Lumqua, a Chinese 

 physician, long resident in Calcutta, informed Mr. McClelland that 

 the Bengal Fish-sago (as Indian Isinglass is called in China), is well 

 known throughout the empire. Also that nothing could surpass his 

 surprise, on his arrival nearly twenty-five years since in Calcutta, 

 when he found that, with the exception of his countrymen, who car- 

 ried on the trade, no one appeared to know or care anything what- 

 ever for the article in question. 



The next quantity received, was forwarded by the Governor- Ge- 

 neral, the Earl of Auckland, to the Court of Directors, as samples of 

 an article of considerable interest ; in order that the Court might, 

 if they saw fit, obtain the opinion of competent persons, as to the 

 purposes and probable extent to which Bengal Isinglass of the des- 

 cription sent could be applied. 



These samples had been prepared by Mr. McClelland, who forward- 

 ed forty-six seers of Bengal Isinglass, in different forms, obtained 

 chiefly from the Potynemus Sele, with other specimens from the 

 species of Bola already alluded to. He states that his attention had 

 for two years been directed to the subject to ascertain the extent 

 to which Isinglass may be procured, and the means by which its 

 manufacture may be improved. 



Mr. McClelland also informs us, that in order to ascertain the value 

 of the article, (merely stripped of all impurities calculated to injure 



