Fresh'*(scater Fishes oj Great Britain, 53 



science of natural history from the extreme aridity of its accustomed 

 details ; and, by combining the precision of a scientific treatise with the 

 more excursive and agreeable character of a popular miscellany, to entice 

 towards the study those who, not being especially called to it by an in- 

 stinctive and irresistible tendency, are apt to be dismayed by the barren 

 technicalities of science, falsely so called. 



Mr. Wilson's work, though expensive, is not high-priced : by which we 

 mean to say, that although the costly nature of the materials employed, 

 renders the publisher's remunerating price considerable, we yet think the 

 charge (16^. per number) very moderate. The form is that of atlas 

 quarto ; and every number contains four plates, each representing one or 

 more subjects, according to their size ; and is accompanied, as we have 

 said, by corresponding letter-press, splendidly printed by Neill, in which 

 the natural history of the animals delineated is amply detailed. The num- 

 bers appear at indefinite periods of three or four months, and well merit 

 the patronage of those to whom splendid, and at the same time instructive 

 books, form the finishing furniture of the drawing-room. In subsequent 

 notices we shall present our readers with some characteristic examples of 

 the author's style, and mode of treating his subjects. In the meantime, as 

 the author of these Illustrations of Zoology is wai'mly impressed with a 

 desire to extend the province of the science, and as we ourselves are now 

 venturing to follow in a similar course, with the same object in view, we 

 most heai'tily wish him success. 



Bowdich, Mrs. T. Edward^ widow of the late celebrated African traveller ; 

 " a lady of the most amiable disposition and elegant manners, and of 

 great and various acquirements : The Fresh-water Fishes of Great Bri- 

 tain. In imperial 4to Numbers. No, I. Ackermann. 

 This is a production of no common merit ; and we are the more 

 anxious so to announce it, because, from its nature, it can fall into compa- 

 ratively few hands, and will be seen much less than it deserves. Mrs. 

 Bowdich, the widow of a gentleman whose narrative of the mission to 

 Ashantee has obtained considerable celebrity, has here exhibited remark- 

 able talent in pourtraying the fishes of our rivers and lakes. When it is 

 mentioned that every illustration contained in each copy is separately 

 drawn and painted by this lady, without the aid of the engraver, it will be 

 perceived that she has undertaken a task of no slight magnitude. As 

 the supply of a work, conducted upon such a plan, must necessarily be 

 limited, we understand it is not contemplated to extend it beyond fifty 

 copies, and even to proceed to that extent will call^ into exercise an 

 unusual degree of perseverance. 



In the classification Mrs. Bowdich has been assisted by Baron Cuvier, 

 whose system she has adopted, and who has furnished her with the 

 nomenclature he intends to employ in his forthcoming great work on 

 Ichthyology. 



The first and only number yet published, contains drawings of the trout, 

 carp, roach, and bleak. The regular series of the families has been inten- 

 tionally interrupted in the illustrations, for the sake of variety in each 

 number ; those least interesting to the eye being mingled with their more 

 beautiful companions. As specimens of art we can only speak of these 

 drawings, in common, we believe, with all who have viewed them, in terms 

 of admiration. Each painting has been made from the living fish, imme- 

 diately after it came from the water it inhabited, so that no tint has been 

 lost or deadened, either by changing the quality of that element, or by ex- 

 posure to the atmosphere. The artist has judiciously selected her subjects, 

 not from extraordinary or large specimens, but from those of a common 

 magnitude, and has chiefly directed her attention to convey the correct 

 shapes of the fishes, and to exhibit the brilliancy of theh- colours with 



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