2 INTRODUCTION. 



machine which propels it, and the latter is placed in a subordinate 

 relation. 



In one group, that of nets, convenience in arrangement of the speci- 

 mens seems to demand that material, a character of small importance, 

 shall be made prominent. Two widely diverging groups of apparatus 

 are associated under the head of nets, viz, encircling-nets, the true rela- 

 tions of which are with grasping and scooping instruments, and entang- 

 ling nets which belong with the traps, where a third group of nets, the 

 pound and weir nets are actually classed. Where the exigencies of 

 administration of the specimens demand that they should be arranged 

 otherwise than in their exact systematic position, full cross-references 

 are given. 



The simplest implements have always been placed first, the series 

 advancing in the order of complication of structure. Thus we have 

 in the beginning the apparatus of direct application, or tools, including, 

 first, those implements which are used in the hand, and which increase 

 its power in a simple way, such as clubs and slung-shot, which merely add 

 to the weight of the fist, followed by the knives, axes, and spears, which 

 in their simplest and primitive form were sharpened stones and pointed 

 sticks. Second, are the grasping-implements, or those by which the 

 power of the fingers is extended. In this series the same principle of 

 progress from simple to complex is followed ; in the scoop we have the 

 idea of the hollow palm of the hand developed in various forms, while the 

 grasping-hooks and grasping-lines are the artificial extensions of the 

 human finger. Under hooked instruments, the simple hooks, or those 

 which are attached to the object by a single motion, a pulling one, are 

 placed first, followed by the barbed implements, in which the attach- 

 ment is made by a thrusting, succeeded by a pulling motion, and then 

 by the tongs and forceps, which are essentially double hooks. The suc- 

 ceeding division is that containing the lasso and bolas, which are 

 worked at long distances and require great skdl, succeeded by the 

 tangles, which are, in principle, assemblages of lassos, entangling objects 

 among their fiber nooses. 



In the third division, that of missiles, the same principle of succession 

 is adhered to. First are placed those missiles which are propelled by the 

 unaided arm ; then those in using which the arm is artificially length- 

 ened, as with the sling, string, or darting stick; then those in which the 

 propelling power is derived from the elasticity of rods and cords, the 

 strength of the arm having become subsidiary ; closing with those in 



