INSTRUCTION. H 



tine ; No 11, the teeth in the tongue, and ~No. 12 those 

 on the roof of the month, or vomerine. The tront the 

 writer has examined had no visible teeth on the roof of 

 the mouth ; they had either suffered from toothache 

 in early life, and applying to a piscatorial dentist, had 

 them drawn, or the teeth had slipped down and settled 

 round their throats as the writer has already mentioned. 

 The reader, therefore, if he wishes to ascertain the 

 scientific designation of a fish, should in the first place 

 determine the number and location of the fins, the num- 

 ber and quality, as soft or hard, of the rays, the number 

 of gill-rays, the characteristics and position of the teeth, 

 the formation of the gill-cover, and lastly, as every num- 

 scull, the drawing teachers assure us, who can write can 

 draw, a drawing of the fish, or at least an outline, 

 should be made. The latter can be done simply by 

 laying the specimen on a sheet of paper, spreading out 

 his fins and running a pencil round him. And then the 

 would-be naturalist will ascertain whether or not he 

 belongs to a class so very liberal as to include salmon 

 and smelt in the same category. He must not forget 

 that it is much more important to study the nature, 

 habits and food of the denizens of the water than to store 

 his memory with their names," for our philosophers hith- 

 erto, instead of studying their nature, have been em- 

 ployed in increasing their catalogues, and the reader, 

 instead of observations or facts, is presented with a long 

 list of names that disgust him with their barren super- 

 fluity." 



