PREFATORY. 



The scientific literature relative to the fi.shes of the western coast of 

 North America is of unusually recent, as well as rapid, growth, Noth- 

 ing exact was known till the present century had lar advanced, for the 

 accounts of the earlier writers, such as Venegas, intead of enlightening 

 the reader, convey absolutely false ideas respecting the character of 

 the ichthyic fauna. Exclusive of incidental notices, the beginnings of 

 an ichthyography of the northwest coast were tirst published in 1831 

 (but printed in 1811) in the " Zoographia Rosso- Asiatica " of Pallas; 

 a few species from British Columbia were described by Richardson in 

 1836, while the fishes of California remained absolutely unknown till 1839, 

 when a glimpse, but an entirely inadequate one, was furnished by Lay 

 and Bennett in their notes and account of species collected during the 

 voyage of the English vessel Blossom. A long silence then supervened, 

 and, with the exceptions thus signalized, and the addition by Storer 

 of a single species of SyngnatJius in 1846, west-coast ichthyography 

 commenced in 1854 with the announcement, b^' Professor Agassiz, of 

 the discovery of the remarkable family of Embiotocoids. This was 

 speedily followed by numerous communications, by Dr. Gibbons, Dr. 

 Girard, and Dr. Ay res, on new species of fishes, mostly from the Cali- 

 foruian waters, but partly from the Oregoniau ones. As early as 1838, 

 nearly 200 species had been made known, and the descriptions of most 

 were collected in a general report by Dr. Girard. The main features 

 of the ichthyology of the Pacific slope were then already- known; but 

 more recent laborers have not only extended largely our knowledge 

 of species, but added anuuiber of entirely new forms, and thrown much 

 light on the relations of the fish-fauna of that region to others. 



The following bibliography is a nearlj^ complete enumeration, in 

 chronological order, of the memoirs and articles of all kinds that have 

 been published on the fishes of the region in question. The chrono- 

 logical order has been determined by the date of reading of the articles 



