coiniiimiicatod to leiiiiiiHl societies. Ju cases of question of piio.ity, 

 tlie light depends, of course, on the period of publication ; hut this 

 is sometimes with great (litliculty ascertainable, aud motives of con- 

 venience have dictated the sequence a<l()|)ted. 



Pel haps some will be disi)i)sed to believe that the compiler has siuued 

 in redundancy rather than deliciency in this bibliography. The evils 

 of the former are, however, easily remedied, while those of the latter 

 must leave the cousulter in more or less doubt. Many popular works 

 have been catalogued where original information of even slight value 

 was contained, aud w^hen such works were among the earliest published 

 on the regions in question. Besides those enumerated, works on Cali- 

 fornia, too numerous to mention, contain incidental information (very 

 rarely of any original value, however) respecting the fishes and flsheries 

 of that State; and a number on the British possessions belong to the 

 same category. Among those relative to British Columbia au<l Van- 

 couver's Island worthy to be mentioned, Ifiit not to be particularized, 

 are the volumes of Win. Carew ilazlitt (1858)^ J. Desford Pembertou 

 (18G0), Duncan George Forbes Macdonald (18G2), Capt. C. E. Barrett 

 Lennard (18G2), Alexander Kattray (1802), Com. R. C. Mayne (18G2), 

 G. M. Sproat (18G8), Francis Poole (1872), and Capt. W. F. Butler 

 (1873). 



The titles of the (io\eriiuient ])ublications are taken from a iikuiu- 

 script compilation embracing notices of all the reports published by 

 the General and State governments on scientific explorations, and 

 intended to be more particular than the present work. They are 

 retained with the bars ( | ), indicating the distribution on the title 

 pages of the lines, etc. 



Several societies have, or have had, the custom of publishing com- 

 munications, sometimes of an elaborate and extended nature, without 

 any titles. This strange and senseless mode of procedure seems to 

 have originated in some freak or allectation of modesty on the part of 

 authors, perhaps, rather than a deliberate intention to shirk labor or 

 confuse matters. Confusion and troul)lt' to others are nevertheless the 

 result of this vicious negligence, ami a conse(iuenco is an ignoring of 

 the papers thus unentitled or an irreconcilable variation of titles in 

 <lin'ereiit bibliographies. Whether the custom originates with authors 

 or not, the assumption of it is discreditable to the editor or editois ol 

 the i)ublications adopting it. A number of the papers here recorded 

 belong to this categorv of the unentitled or disentitled : the titles lol 



