APPENDIX 

 Introduction 



GIANNI ROGHI has entrusted me with the editing of the 

 scientific section of this book. In view of the enormous quantity 

 and variety of fauna in the Red Sea, the mass of specimen material 

 brought back and the short time that elapsed between the return of the 

 Expedition to Italy and the writing of this book the task is not an 

 easy one. Several difficulties beset the biological investigation of the 

 causes determining the habits and ways of life of the various groups 

 of animals that we studied in the Red Sea. The classification of 

 many of the fish, echinoderms, Crustacea, molluscs, etc., that were 

 captured, is still problematic and an exact classification will take 

 months or years. I shall therefore confine myself to summary observa- 

 tiom of a strictly scientific nature and develop certain points already 

 mentioned by Roghi and of interest to the general reader. These notes 

 are not an exhaustive record of what was observed and collected. The 

 relevant studies will in due course be published in a series of mono- 

 graphs compiled with the collaboration of Italian and foreign 

 naturalists, 



Francesco Baschieri 



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