Preface 



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^ "If ^HE inhabitants of the waters of the earth have fascinated human beings ever 

 since "God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth." Our 

 interests have by no means been confined to the aesthetic or the gustatory 5 the 

 reflections of Isaac Walton are an earnest of the composure and rapport with the universe 

 that exists when fishes and their surroundings are contemplated; the mental relaxation of 

 fly fisherman or surf caster needs no defense or explanation; the life of fishes, their migra- 

 tions, their evolution, and the incredibly diverse facets of their activities, aflFord infinite 

 opportunities for study by the scientist. In latter years man's curiosity about the inhabitants 

 of "the water in the seas" has been increased and stimulated by his ever greater penetra- 

 tion into the deeps. Improved apparatus has enabled him to widen his sphere of effort and 

 to capture fish for his markets farther from shore and deeper down than heretofore. With 

 goggles and rubber fins he has pushed beneath the surface for momentary glimpses of 

 those which live below; with diving helmet and diving suit he has gone deeper and investi- 

 gated more closely; in the bathysphere he has dangled in the sea half a mile down and 

 checked on the lives of the strange fishes which make their home in that dark and cold 

 portion of the world. 



Expeditions have gone forth with fishes as their prime consideration, and ichthyol- 

 ogists have studied what the expeditions brought back. Men and women in numerous 

 laboratories have worked upon fisheries problems, while countless numbers of fishermen, 

 professional and amateur, have added their bit to the knowledge of the whys and where- 

 fores of our fishes. All this has produced an enormous quantity of information and lore 

 which lies scattered in countless publications. The reason for the present series of volumes 

 is to correlate the contents of the rich storehouse of knowledge relating to the fishes that 

 live in the waters of the western North Atlantic. 



This volume, the first of a series, describes the lancelets, the hagfishes and the lam- 

 preys, and those most interesting animals, the sharks. It has been written on the premise 

 that it should be useful to those in many walks of life — to those casually or vitally inter- 

 ested in the general phenomena of life in our waters, to the sportsman whose interests are 

 closely associated with pleasure and relaxation, to the fisherman whose livelihood depends 

 upon knowledge of where fishes are gathered together, as well as to the amateur ichthyol- 

 ogist and the professional scientist. Special stress has been given to the relationship of the 

 fishes to ourselves — in most cases this relationship is to man's advantage, but the present 

 volume also carries this theme in reverse — some sharks will attack man! 



