TRIASSIC FISHES OF CONNECTICUT. 



i. 



ON THE STUDY OF FOSSIL FISHES IN GENERAL. 



" There will we find laws which shall interpret, 

 Through the simpler past, existing life." — 



Kingsley. 



PALEONTOLOGY is the natural history of the Past. It is 

 that branch of biological science which acquaints us with the 

 endless succession of animate forms that has inhabited the earth 

 since life first began. Primarily an extension of zoology and 

 botany, as these subjects are commonly understood, it may be 

 regarded also as an historical science, by virtue of the time 

 element pervading it. Its aims and methods are akin to the 

 historian's. The facts it deals with are vital facts, linked together 

 by the principle of continuity and progressive development. The 

 story it unfolds is one of world-wide changes, of silent, slow, 

 'and exceedingly gradual transformations wrought upon organic 

 framework by an infinity of complex forces, strivings, tendencies, 

 surroundings, all operating through immense cycles of time, and 

 culminating finally in one supreme achievement — in the produc- 

 tion of a race of beings possessed of self-conscious intelligence, 

 and of a well-nigh unlimited development of that faculty. 



The historical aspect of paleontology is worth considering. 

 What is the theme of human history, if it be not the development 

 of mankind? Is it not a record of all the changes in the state 

 of men which have occurred since the first evidences of " the 

 sons of men " upon our globe ? Does it not, in a word, inform us 

 of the progression of human events? The theme of paleontology 

 is similar, but broader. It is compassed by, and at the same time 

 extends, the domain of universal history. It treats of the de- 

 velopment of life in general, considers it in its grandes lignes, 



