IX 



formed basins and seas communicate through wide as well as 

 through narrow straits with each other and with the oceans. 

 But for the rest they are more or less enclosed between the 

 numerous islands, which in the west of the Archipelago are 

 generally bordered by a sandy beach or rocky coast, and in 

 the east by coral reefs or often by Lithothamnion banks, covered 

 by shallow water only. 



The shallow sea with its diversity of bottom-material, the 

 deep sea, the coral reefs, the Lithothamnion banks, the sandy 

 and the rocky coasts, the Pelagial near the coast or far out 

 in the sea, all represent as many different areas, which yield 

 an equally great diversity of inhabitants, a diversity corres- 

 ponding with the qualitative as well as the quantative richness 

 of the ichthyological fauna of the Archipelago. 



It is no wonder that such a wealth of fishes, in freshwater 

 as well as in the sea, is of great importance to a population, 

 which lives for a very large part along the coast. Among them 

 are tribes who practise fishery with vessels, specially and ably 

 constructed by themselves for this purpose, using often cunningly 

 devised appliances and even apply fishnursing. Other tribes 

 confine themselves to fishing without leaving the shore, still 

 others are content with a primitive mode of catching fish at 

 low tide along the beach and on the coral reefs. 



The manifold native names, given to the fishes, are in accor- 

 dance with the multiplicity of languages spoken in the Archi- 

 pelago. Even as with us, the nomenclature has grown still richer, 

 by the many local names which the same fish bears. 



We have recorded under: "nomina indigena" those native 

 names, which seemed to us to be trustworthy. We are of 

 opinion that no great value ought to be attached to them, as 

 the unavoidable series of difficulties is still enlarged by the 

 fact, that the authorities for those names have mostly been 

 European ichthyologists and no linguists. 



Our work is a systematical one. The System of the Teleostei 

 is in a state of development, which is far from being complete. 

 This explains the very different conceptions since GONTHER 

 wrote his Catalogue of Fishes, a work that will always remain 

 a monument of knowlegde and industry. 



The systematic arrangement, adopted by us, is in many 

 instances a compromise between modern conceptions and those 

 of former authors. 



