12 
terus Senegalus, Calamoichthys, induces me to briefly men- 
tion them here. The first abounds in many places, and 
forms an important article of food. It is to be frequently 
seen at the native markets in a smoked condition, almost 
black, and secured in numbers in circular form on bamboo 
skewers. 
As to deep-sea fishes, viz., those which inhabit such depths 
of the ocean as to be but little or not influenced by light 
or the surface temperature, I do not feel, in view of object 
and scope of this Paper, called upon to dwell. 
Philanthropic and scientific expeditions undertaken at 
various times in the past, point to the fertility of the 
Eastern Atlantic as a fish-bed, but it is evident that suff- 
cient advantage, compared with the fruit to have been 
reaped, has not been taken of nature’s bounty; and as 
regards West Africa, a comparatively new and scientifically 
unknown region, other mercantile and more popular attrac¢- 
tions and manias have caused the fish industry to be now 
what it was a hundred years ago, aye, more, ab initio, the 
primitive calling and promotion of the aborigines in whose 
hands it has been and is, but towards whom more interest 
of a practical nature should have been, and, it is to be 
hoped, will be directed in the matter, at least, of the 
improvement of the system of catch and healthy supply. 
West African Settlements. 
The West African Settlements, commonly. understood as 
Sierra Leone and the Gambia, were reconstituted under 
Letters Patent of the 17th December, 1874, into one 
Government, comprising Her Majesty’s Settlement of Sierra ‘ 
Leone, embracing all places, settlements, and territories 
which may at any time belong to Her Majesty in West 
Africa between the 6th and 12th degrees of N. latitude 
