92 The Life and Writings of 



In this way this remarkable book was launched. 

 Many of the descriptions of fishes which it contains 

 are still regarded as good ; they are, of course, charac 

 terized by exceeding briefness, and must, many of them, 

 be read in connection with the generic characters which 

 precede them. There was certainly no opportunity of 

 checking observations by the work of others, because 

 the field was wholly unexplored and its fauna entirely 

 unknown. It was impossible that errors of more or less 

 moment should not enter into a book written piecemeal as 

 this one was. It is also quite evident, to any one who 

 has seen any of the fishes of the Ohio, that most of the 

 descriptions are based upon actual observation. But it 

 is also to be remembered that the descriptions were 

 mainly made from the fresh and living specimens in 

 exact imitation of the method adopted by the same 

 anthor in his work on the fishes of Sicily. These 

 descriptions were placed in his note-books and after 

 ward utilized in the preparation of the serial papers 

 without the check afforded by comparison of specimens. 

 Also, facts were collected after the publication of some 

 of the parts in the Western Review and Miscellaneous 

 Magazine, and these were then introduced, sometimes 

 with change of the original names. A few forms had 

 already been characterized in the American Monthly 



