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PREFACE. 



Ix completing the present account of the researches which were 

 undertaken during the two Tanganyika expeditions, I am somewhat 

 oppressed with the possibility that the unique opportunities and 

 material available may not have received the justice they would 

 have done in the hands of many naturalists who have more ex- 

 perience than I am old enough to possess. We were actually the 

 last zoological explorers with a great untouched field before them, 

 and when it is remembered, that among other things, we have had 

 to deal with nearly 200* entirely new animal types discovered 

 during these expeditions, it will be admitted that the labour of 

 giving an adequate account of the faunistic characters of the 

 great African lakes has not been exactly child's play. It should, 

 moreover, be clearly understood that the acquisition of all this 

 new material and information respecting Central Africa has been 

 primarily due to the instigation and persistence of Professor Ray 

 Lankester, and I only wish that he, instead of myself, could have 

 found time to write the present account. On the other hand, it 

 would perhaps have been impossible for anyone who was without 

 a somewhat prolonged and actual acquaintance with the African 

 interior, to attempt to deal with all the aspects the Tanganyika 

 problem has been found to present, and I can therefore only point 

 out to any who may feel that the present work could have been 

 better done, that I am fully conscious of its peculiar deficiencies. 



Few people here, moreover, will be able to appreciate how com- 

 pletely during the actual operations of exploring parties in practically 

 unknown countries, whatever results may be obtained are due to 

 the disinterested and gratuitous help which may or may not be 

 extended to them by people, administrators and the like, who live 



* In this connection it may be interesting to remember that the whole of the fishes, 

 fresh water and marine, belonging to the British Islands, only represent about 240 

 species. 



