VI INTRODUCTION. 



bly described above a half. This is the less to be regretted, as 

 a great proportion of them has probably been described in the 

 valuable work of Dr Russell. 



In the arrangement of the fishes, I have followed the me- 

 thod of Linnaeus ; for, although that of La Cepede is more 

 complete, the distinctions arising from the gill-covers and mem- 

 branes are often traced with so much difficulty, as to occasion 

 much doubt in practice. In arranging the genera and species, 

 however, I have, for the most part, followed La Cepede. I had 

 finished the manuscript before I saw the valuable system of 

 Cuvier ; and the numerous changes which would have been re- 

 quired to adopt it, would have occasioned a trouble, for which 

 the improvements, although considerable, would not, I think, 

 be a sufficient counterbalance. 



For the sake of my countrymen residing on the banks of the 

 Ganges, to whom this work should be peculiarly useful, I have 

 employed the English language, although the technical terms 

 necessary to be used in describing natural objects appear more 

 uncouth in a modern dialect than in the Latin tongue. I re- 

 quest the reader to observe, that, in speaking of the form of 

 fishes, I use the terms high and flat to express their great or 

 small vertical breadth, while their horizontal breadths are ex- 

 pressed by the terms wide and narrow. These terms are, 

 therefore, applied differently in describing the flat fishes which 

 swim on one side, to what they are in describing all the 

 others, which swim with their bellies toward the bottom. In 

 writing of the back and vent fins, by the terms long and short, 

 I mean the great or small length which these organs occupy on 

 the fishes' body ; while by high and low I express the great or 



