Men and Fish 5 



excellent wine in tightly sealed bottles j in the next, a lot of 

 thirsty people with no bottle-openers. To furnish the bottle- 

 opener is the object of this book: to bring all that knowledge 

 out of the musty atmosphere of the laboratory, where it now 

 lies in a state of perfect but useless preservation, and to turn 

 it over, in suitable form, to the seekers to consume j in short, 

 to tell the anglers and aquarists what the scientists know 

 about the things that they want to know. 



If fish were all just alike, writing about them would be a 

 great deal easier than it is. They differ, sometimes radically. 

 It is impossible to make universal statements about fish 5 it 

 is impossible to use the words "always," "all," "never," 

 "none," when talking about them. Some of the differences 

 are important, and will be discussed, but many are unimpor- 

 tant, at least to the reader. If we tried to treat them all, we 

 should never end. Failure to point out exceptions to any 

 rule does not mean that there are none. Let it be accepted 

 therefore as our only rule that there is no statement in this 

 book to which there are not some exceptions. 



