PREFACE 



THE investigation which furnished the collections whereon arc based the reports 

 comprised under the present cover owed its inception to the enlightened policy 

 pursued by His HIGHNESS MAHARAJA SAYAJI RAO III., GAKKWAR OF BARODA, for 

 the educational and material development of the historic State which is so fortunate 

 as to be ruled by him. 



Naturally the technical inquiry at Okhamandal which His Highness honoured 

 me by entrusting to me to carry out, had the improvement of the economic marine 

 resources of that district as its foremost object, and indeed its raison <T<"tr<- 

 from an administrative standpoint; yet, with a generosity towards the furtherance 

 of pure science too rarely found among the heads of States, His Highness most 

 willingly agreed to bear the entire expense involved in the publication of any 

 scientific reports written by specialists upon the zoological collections made during 

 the inquiry. He was also pleased to express the wish that such papers should In- 

 presented in the best possible form, and that no efforts were to be spared in their 

 satisfactory illustration. 



Hitherto the attention of zoologists dealing with the fauna of Indian seas 

 has been directed in the main towards the investigation of the species inhabiting 

 the deeper zones; in this connection I have only to cite the classic monographs 

 with which the name of the Indian Marino Surveying steamer " INVESTIGATOR ' 

 and of MAJOR ALCOCK, F.R.S., late Superintendent of the Calcutta Museum (Natural 

 History), will ever be associated with all honour. Comparatively little attention 



