On East Indian Isinglass. 



175 



specimen to us, as well as of another fish of which Caviare 

 is prepared. 



Of these fishes, which at Bombay contribute largely to the 

 exports of that place, two have within the last few months 

 been made known as common also on the Tenasserim Coast, 

 where their value, as far as we yet know, appears to be less, 

 or indeed little understood.* 



The attention of the authorities in the Tenasserim Pro- 

 vinces, as well as Arrakan, have already been attracted to 

 the subject, and reports from Mr. Blundell and Captain Bogle 

 have been received, which prove, that they are engaged in 

 collecting information, which will doubtless be the means of 

 leading to the improvement and encouragement of fisheries. f 



* A memorandum enclosed with Dr. Heddle's letter shews the amount 

 of exports from Bombay, during the official year of 1839-40, for sharks' 

 fins and fish-maws to be 2,82,383 rupees. The following places are 

 given as the sources of these supplies : Malabar Coast, Cutch, Scinde, 

 Mekran, Muscat, Bunder Abbas, Goa, the Coasts of Concan, Damaun, 

 and Surat. Those exported from Scinde and Damaun are reckoned the 

 best, those from Malabar are inferior. These different qualities in the 

 B'hdt depend, we conceive, upon the species of fish from which it is 

 taken, and not upon the place 



t Mr. Blundell, the Commissioner of the Tenasserim Provinces, to 

 whom at the desire of Lord Auckland, we communicated all that had 

 been done in Calcutta on the subject of Isinglass, writes to us from 

 Moulmein, 24th June 1841, that having given to a friend at Amherst 

 all the information collected in Calcutta about Isinglass, he commenced 

 some inquiries, the results of which he wrote to me as follows : " The 

 Polynemus Sele, called by the Burmese Kdtkay, frequents our coast. I 

 had one brought to me yesterday, which is the perfect fish described in 

 the Asiatic Journal. I send you the Isinglass taken from it. The fish was 

 about 13 inches long, and judging from the size of the sound, and its 

 weight in comparison with the description of McClelland, I should be 

 inclined to say, that it is infinitely superior. * * * The large specimen I 

 found in possession of a Chinaman, and on inquiry of the Burmese, 

 I find it is procured from the same fish of a large size. The season of 

 their visitation in numbers, is on the approach of the dry weather, 

 when by arranging with the fishermen, a large quantity may be collected. 



