44 ICHTHYOLOGIA 0HIENS1S 



named Prodromus of seventy new genera of A nimals and 

 fifty new genera of Plants from North America, and I 

 now propose to publish a complete account of all the 

 species I have discovered. I am confident that they 

 do not include the whole number existing in the 

 Ohio, much less in the Mississippi ; but as they will 

 offer a great [I. 306] [<5] proportion of them, and, as 

 the additional species may be gradually described in 

 supplements, I venture to introduce them to the 

 acquaintance of the American and European natural- 

 ists ; being confident that they will not be deemed 

 an inconsiderable addition to our actual knowledge 

 of the finny tribes. To the inhabitants of the west- 

 ern states, to those who feed daily upon them, their 

 correct and scientific account ought to be peculiarly 

 agreeable. I trust they will value the exertions 

 through which I have been able to accomplish so 

 much in so short a period of time, and I wish I could 

 induce them to lend me their aid, in the succession 

 of my studies of those animals, by communicating 

 new facts, details, and rare species. I may assure 

 them that their kind help shall be gratefully received 

 and acknowledged. 



The science of Ichthyology has lately received 

 great additions in the United States. A few of the 

 atlantic fishes had been formerly enumerated by 

 Catesby, Kalm, Forster, Garden, Linnaeus Schoepf, 

 Castiglione, Bloch, Bosc, and Lacepede; but Dr. 

 Samuel L. Mitchell has increased our knowledge, 

 with about one hundred new species at once, in his 

 two memoirs on the Fishes of New-York, the first 

 published in 18 14, in the Transactions of the Liter- 

 ary and Philosophical Society of New- York, and the 

 second in the American Monthly Magazine in 1 8 1 7. 



