ON ICHTHYOLOGY IN GENERAL. O 



The names again which have been bestowed on 

 fishes and on the groups into which they are collected, 

 being generally derived from the Greek, have a for- 

 midable aspect. This difficulty, however, soon wears 

 off; and when the meaning of the terms become 

 known, they afford in many cases a valuable aid in 

 remembering the chief characteristic of the group or 

 species. 



Who, I would ask, finds any difficulty in re- 

 membering such terms as " Fuchsia," " Geranium," 

 or "Hippopotamus," which they are accustomed to? 

 Few harder words than these are to be met with in 

 Ichthyology. 



(N.B. A useful little word to be familiar with is the 

 Greek " Ichthys," a fish, which forms part of many 

 names, and has rather an uncompromising look about 

 it.) 



Now, however, that the foundation, so to speak, 

 has been firmly laid, there is no longer the necessity, 

 in discussing the fishes of a well explored region, 

 for instance, the fresh-water fishes of the Indian 

 peninsular, of overloading our descriptions with a 

 mass of technical terms. We need no longer work 

 from the particular to the general, anol describe each 

 species so minutely as to enable a classifier to assign 

 to it its place among the families and genera of fishes. 



This work has all been done for us by previous 

 explorers, and the time has now fully arrived that 

 we can afford to start from general principles, and 

 lead the student by natural stages to recognize apart 



