Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. (IA mobot31753002848262).pdf/56

 the outermost integument, "shagreen." is covered with denticles, and hitherto, owing to the difficulty of treatment, has had a very limited use, but within the last few years a method has been discovered of separating the outer and inner skins and the latter can be tanned and used in every way like ordinary leather. It is therefore likely that the high price and scarcity of ordinary leather will eventually lead to the universal exploitation of the shark, ray and porpoise fisheries with special nets and appliances. I see in the Australian Magazine "Sea, Land and Air" (September 1920) that a Marine-Leather Company is operating successfully off the coast of Florida and North Carolina.

Other commercial products are the blood, fins, liver and meat. The blood is said to furnish one of the finest waterproof glues yet known for aeroplane propellers, etc.; the fins are a well known Chinese delicacy, and the American Bureau of Fisheries has published some thirty recipes for cooking shark-meat.

Small sharks are esteemed as food by the Malays, Indians and Chinese and are excellent eating.

The liver of the shark is rich in oil and is said to equal that of the Cod in its medicinal properties. It is also used in the preparation of soap, paint, etc., including the treatment of leather.

SAW FISHES.

(PRISTIDAE.)

The family contains one genus (Pristis) with about four or five species.

These fish are termed Běroi by Malays in some districts but the descriptive names Yu gergaji, Yu parang and Yu todak are more commonly heard, Malays placing these and the among the Sharks  and not among the Rays, with good reason.

Boulenger states that an arbitrary distinction has been made which has little to recommend it except custom and some measure of convenience.

These fish are readily eaten by Malays, Chinese and Tamils and are very common. They enter rivers right up into fresh water and small specimens two or three feet long are often taken accidentally in casting nets.

They have always appeared to me to be very lethargic and sluggish and as the small ones in a net give less trouble than any other fish of the same size, I have always considered them to be more formidable in appearance than in reality. However, Day writes "Great injuries are inflicted by these fishes, which strike sideways with their formidable snouts; and although not personally a witness to the fact, I have been informed on native authority, that large ones have been known to cut a bather entirely in two."

It would be interesting to know whether there is any record of patients having been admitted to hospital in India or Malaya, suffering from injuries inflicted by these fish.