gWouv tfvob tHe 'Wood i& So tteat beiaa, jmiJied, 

 £Pui>*ct'i(>e*,5 ate ka^ticulatut tcaiteJteo to rwafce 

 u h/ tlveii< cieti. 



PKEFACE. 



There is, perhaps, no department of Natural His- 

 tory, which, within a recent period, has advanced 

 more rapidly than that of Ichthyology. 



In that volume of the great modern work on this 

 department of Science, which, in the year 1833, 

 was published shortly after the demise of its illus- 

 trious author, and which is prefaced by M. Valen- 

 ciennes' beautiful Eloge on his great master and 

 coadjutor, we are told that these eminent indi- 

 viduals had collected satisfactory information con- 

 cerning about 4000 species of Fishes ; a number 

 which, M. Agassiz states, has been since augmented 

 to 8000. 



During this period of general advancement, few 

 portions of the Science have attracted more par- 

 ticular attention than that which relates to this 

 department of the British Fauna. When Mr. Pen- 

 nant's last Edition of British Zoology issued from 

 the Press, in the year 1812, the ascertained num- 



