ANIMAL CLASSIFICATION 7 



species, fish skin can be transformed into very serviceable 

 leather. The utility of any beast, bird, or fish is not always 

 obvious ; in one part of the world it may be of vital impor- 

 tance to mankind, in another its value may lie altogether 

 in a different direction. The harvest of the North Sea the 

 cod, plaice, herring, &c. is destined chiefly for the markets 

 of our great industrial centres ; but on the west coast of 

 Ireland, where the population is sparse, the farmer catches 

 fish, which he spreads upon his fields to rot and thus 

 nourish his land with cheap manure. 



When a traveller is about to venture into a far-off and 

 unknown country, he first studies all the available maps and 

 charts constructed by those who have gone before him. We 

 are about to penetrate into a large portion of the animal 

 world on a voyage of inquiry into at least some of the phe- 

 nomena of animal life, and it behoves us to set about our 

 task upon some recognised method most likely to assist our 

 progress. We shall find that the great naturalists of past 

 ages devised a scheme of animal classification which, with 

 ever increasing knowledge, has developed into roads, 

 smoothed of almost all difficulties for the student who is 

 prepared to exert only ordinary care to keep on the right 

 path. Everywhere are erected finger-posts to direct us to 

 that knowledge of which we are in search knowledge that 

 will instruct and amuse, that will cause us to take additional 

 interest in the animals that serve us knowledge that will 

 fill us with admiration for the wisdom of God, and that 

 cannot but call for our tribute of adoration to Him who 

 'hath done all things well.' 



It is calculated that over two million species of living 

 creatures exist in this world of ours. Between the elephant 

 and the whale, the giants of the animal creation, and the 

 cheese mite, only just discernible with the human eye, there 

 are myriads of creatures differing in size, form, and habit ; 

 and the mite is by no means the most minute of beings. 

 Yet, however large or however tiny it may be, the exist- 

 ence of each living creature is part of God's beneficent 

 plan ; great and small alike are set to run their course by 

 Him who seeth all and maketh all. 



Often when we are meeting with no success in our 



