1 10 Production of Isinglass on the Coasts of India. 



of another Fish were carried away by the Chinese from near to Cal- 

 cutta, at the rate of about a shilling a pound, without any one being 

 apparently aware of it, so in Bombay a commerce has long been es- 

 tablished in Fish-maws, at about double the price of the former, 

 without its being generally known that it was Isinglass which was 

 thus exported. The Chinese, therefore, obtain from India, what we 

 import from Russia and Brazil, and in this respect they exhibit 

 no greater strangeness of taste than we do ourselves. For they give 

 only about the same price (14/.) which is obtained in the London 

 market for Isinglass of the same quality, and while we give as much 

 as between 60/. and 70/. for the best kinds ; and between 90/. and 

 100/. when we require this for consumption. 



The large quantities in which these Fish-maws are collected and 

 exported from the Port of Bombay (independent of what Mr. Craw- 

 ford mentions as exported from the Indian Islands to India), indicate 

 that very large numbers of Fish must have been caught. In fact, 

 that the natives of these various countries must be in the habit 

 of paying very considerable attention to Fishing in general. We 

 are thus almost insensibly led from a consideration of the mode 

 of preparing the Sounds of Fish, to that of the methods of 

 procuring and preserving the Fish themselves. Also to the amount 

 to which these processes are practised, or to which they may be 

 extended. 



The most cursory inspection of the preceding table of the imports 

 into one port, shews that Fishing must be followed to a considerable 

 extent on the African Coasts, and the Gulfs of Arabia and Persia. 

 The Arabs have indeed, from the earliest times, been noted as navi- 

 gators, and for having been the carriers of the produce of India to 

 the shores of the Red Sea, and the banks of the Euphrates, which 

 thence found their way into Egypt, Syria, and Europe. The 

 Natives of India are generally supposed to be little addicted to the 

 sea, or to availing themseleves of the treasures which it affords, but 

 the foregoing table shews that the Gulfs of Cutch and Cambay, as 

 well as the Malabar and Coromandel Coasts, all send the spoils 

 of the sea to be exchanged for the treasures of the land. We know 

 also that Fishing is practised to a consideration extent in the vici- 

 nity of Bombay, Madras, -md Calcutta, as well as every where in 



