EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION. Ixiii 
the families of Scorpzenids, Cottids, and Agonids. The first are chiefly and 
collectively known as Rockfishes, although many of the species have 
received distinctive names from the fishermen, especially the Portuguese. 
Nearly sixty species occur at different depths along the coast; they are 
marketable fishes, but not much esteemed. The second family is repre- 
sented by the Sculpins of the East Coast ; and one of the Californian species 
named Cabezon (Scorpanichthys marmoratus) reaches a weight of twenty to 
twenty-five pounds, and is caught for the market, although little esteemed. 
The numerous other species are of no economical importance. The third 
family, for which the English name of Sea Poachers has been provided, is 
of no interest to the fisherman, but very interesting to the ichthyologist. 
Closely related to the three first named are two other families peculiar to 
the North Pacific, —the Hexagrammids or Greenlings, and the Anoplo- 
pomids or Skilfishes. The species of both are of economical importance. 
The Cultus Cod (Ophiodon elongatus) is a large-sized (thirty to forty pounds) 
and valuable fish ; and the Atka-fish, abundant about the Aleutian archipel- 
ago, is beautiful in color and excellent for the table. The Skilfish (Azop/o- 
poma fimbria) is the only representative but one of its family, and is most 
abundant northward, where it is called Coal-fish or Pollock (from its strik- 
ing resemblance, when old, to the Codfishes of those names), as well as 
Skil and Beshow. “About the Straits of Fuca it becomes very fat and 
highly appreciated.” 
Another highly characteristic family well represented along the Californian 
coast and confined to the North Pacific, is that of the famous viviparous 
fishes, or Embiotocids. The name chiefly applied —or rather misapplied 
—to its species is Perch, but the collective name of Surf-fishes has been 
provided for them. Eleven species live along the coast, and several are 
carried to the markets in considerable quantities, but are held in little 
esteem. 
Most of the other marketable species belong to families well represented 
elsewhere. The most important are the Clupeids (Herrings), the Argentinids 
and Atherinids (very different from each other structurally, but so much 
alike in coloration as to be entitled'with the same name — Smelt — by the 
fishermen and the marketmen), the Sphyreenids (Barracudas), the Sciznids 
(Sea Bass), the Gadids (Codfishes), and the Pleuronectids (Flounders, 
Halibuts, etc.). 
The most important fishes from an economical point of view in the rela- 
tive order of their values are the Codfishes, the Pleuronectids, the Smelts, 
