PREFACE TO THE SECOND PART. 



THE same want of complete and precise information in 

 regard to a perfect knowledge of the fishes of the United 

 Stales that existed at the time of the issue of the first edition, 

 exists, with hardly an exception, at the present moment. The 

 completion of the " Natural History of the State of New 

 YorK" has added one link to the chain of information on the 

 subject of natural science, which will one day extend around 

 and Dind together a mass of useful information, of vast import- 

 ance to future generations. Professor Holbrook, of Charleston, 

 is now engaged on a work on the Ichthyology of South 

 Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, which promises to be one of 

 the most complete and beautiful works of the kind ever issued. 

 Would that other states, or scientific individuals, might follow 

 in the lootsteps oi their illustrious predecessors ! and that the 

 tenants of the waters, as well as those of the air, had their 

 Wilson or Audubon. 



The remarks oi the celebrated and learned Dewitt Clinton 

 are as applicable to the subject now as at the time they were 

 written : " The energies of the country have been more 

 directed to the accumulation of wealth than to the acquisition of 

 knowledge. But let us fervently hope, that after this passion, 

 so energetic, is satiated in its present pursuit, it may seek more 

 sublime sources of gratification." 



"To either India see the merchant fly, 

 Scared at the spectre of pale poverty ! 

 See him, with pains of body, pangs of soul, 

 Burn through the tropic, freeze beneath the pole! 

 Wilt thou do nothing for a noble end, 

 Nothing to make philosophy thy friend ? w 



