THE 



FISHES OF GUIANA. 



' INTRODUCTION. 



The Botany and Zoology of Guiana have found 

 able historians ; but it appears that Ichthyology, 

 that interesting branch of the Natural History of a 

 district so much intersected by mighty streams and 

 numerous rivulets, has been much neglected. It is 

 true that Bloch in his splendid Avork, and also his 

 successor Schneider, gave us a description of some of 

 the inhabitants of the fresh-w^ater rivers of Guiana ; 

 and, at a more recent period, Lacepede, Humboldt, 

 Spix, Agassiz, Cuvier, and his able coadjutor Va- 

 lenciennes, have added a few to the number previ- 

 ously known ; but with these single exceptions, the 

 knowledge and history of the fishes of Guiana have 

 remained almost a sealed book to the scientific 

 world. If we, however, divest the history of its 

 finny tribe of all our technical phraseology, and do 

 not restrict it to a description of their external cha- 



