INTRODUCTION. 



The past decade has been productive of an enormous increase in 

 our knowledge of the Fresh-water Fishes of xifrica. The explorations of 

 the Congo and the Nile, undertaken at considerable expense by the 

 Governments of the late Congo Free State and of Egypt, and of 

 the great lakes of Central Africa, initiated in this country, have 

 resulted in the discovery and description of an unexpectedly large 

 number of generic and specific forms, types of most of which are 

 deposited in the Natural History Museum. 



At the same time, concurrently with the study of the many thousands 

 of specimens collected on the above-mentioned surveys, every effort was 

 made to increase our acquaintance with the fishes of other parts of 

 Africa, with results which are sufficiently apparent from the present 

 Catalogue, intended to form three volumes, which, it is hoped, w-ill 

 aflford a sound basis for the discussion of problems of distribution. 

 Much remains to be done, however, in many parts of Africa ; and 

 no better incentive could be given to further progress on the part 

 of collectors, as well as of students at home, than the compilation of 

 such a simple handbook, containing a complete list of the specimens 

 preserved in this great ichthyological collection, together with concise 

 descriptions of and keys to the genera and species and text-figures of 

 most of the latter. 



The greater number of these figures are reproduced, by permission, 

 from the ' Annales du Musee du Congo,' the * Fishes of the Nile,' the 

 ' Transactions ' and ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society of London, 

 and the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' in which works the 

 new species were described by Dr. Giinther and by myself. Other 

 figures are reproduced from the publications of Drs. Peters, Steindachner, 



