SARDINE. ENO., FR., l-r.
&Mellen, . . GER. Sanlivas , SP The sardine flah of commerce is found in the Mediterranean, where its fishery employs a great number of people. In the Asiatic seas there are fishes of the same or allied genera. Engraulis meletta ? is a small fish of the herring family-at Timoy and Mergui, which is nearly related to the ' common sardine.
The sardine of Penang is the Duseuinleria mato, Cur. and Val., the Tambat Bulat of the 'Malays, also the Clupeonia perforata, the Ikan tamban of the Malays.
Sir J. E. Tennent mentions that Sardinella Neohowii, Val., frequents the southern and eastern coast of Ceylon in such profusion, that in one instance, in 1839, 400,000 were taken in a haul of the nets in the little bay of Goyapanna, east of Point de Galle. As this vast shoal approached the shore, the broken water became as smooth as if a sheet of ice had been floating below the surface. S. lineolata, Cum and Val., and the S. leiogaster, Cuv. and Val., are found at Trin comalee, also off the coast of Java. Another Ceylon fish of the same group, a Clupea, is known as the poisonous sprat. The sardine has the
reputation of being poisonous at certain seasons, and accidents ascribed to eating it are recorded in all parts of Ceylon. Whole families of fisher men who have partaken of it have died. Twelve persons in the jail of Chilau were thus poisoned about the year 1829 ; and tbe deaths of soldiers have repeatedly been ascribed to the same cause. An order•passed by the Governor in Council in February 1824, after recidng that, Whereas it appears by information conveyed t,o the Govern ment that at three several periods at Trincomalee, death has been the consequence to several persons from eating the fish called Sardinia during the roonths of January and December,' enacts that it shall not be lawful in that district to catch sardines during these months, under pain of fine and imprisonment.' This order is still in force, but the fishing continues notwithstanding. The poisonous fish of this family which occurs in the Asiatic seas, is, however, the Meletta venenosa.— Tennent's Ceylon ; Mason; Your. Ind. Arch.