4^2 DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



from Martinique J)y general Donzelot and M. Plee, 

 from Brazil and the Cape by M. Delalande, from 

 Coromandel and from Bengal by M. Leschenault, 

 and from different places, particularly the Ma- 

 rian islands, the Sandwich islands and New 

 Guinea, by the naturalists embarked with captain 

 Freycinet. Through all these channels a great 

 number of new species have been obtained. 

 Whilst other travellers were sending us the 

 rarest productions of the seas, lakes and rivers 

 they had visited in the most distant countries, 

 we have not neglected on our part to procure 

 all the species of France, Germany and Italy, from 

 the Northern ocean and from the Mediterra- 

 nean; and although the fish of these seas had 

 long been studied, they have afforded us many 

 species which naturalists had confounded, be- 

 cause they had not been able to collect in order 

 to compare them. This collection has only been 

 formed a few years, and we have no doubt but 

 it w r ill soon be augmented. What we have said 

 is sufficient to show its importance; but it is im- 

 possible on a superficial view to appreciate its 

 value ; for its greatest utility is not that which 

 attracts the eye, it can only be felt by the natu- 

 ralist. We shall confine ourselves to pointing 

 out the order in which it is disposed, showing 

 the principal differences which exist between 



