37 



insult, and revenge. Instead of being a boon of peace and a 

 comfort to men of quiet and studious habits, it would degenerate 

 into a state of continual warfare, and few men of science would 

 like to spend tbeir lives on such a field of battle. 



To put an end to these remarks, I will only add that I think 

 that when zoologists have long resided in a locality, and have 

 made its productions the object of a particular study, such as 

 Euppell, Bleeker, Day, &c , their opinion is of greater value 

 than that of a man, whatever may he his scientific acquirements, 

 who remains in his study in Europe. A visit to a fish market, 

 in bringing under your eyes thousands of specimens of a sort, 

 will certainly lead you to a more correct idea of its variations 

 than ean be obtained by the residing zoologist, who only has at 

 his disposition one, or in all cases, a very few specimens, having 

 lost their colours, and more or less their form, by dessication or 

 preservation in spirits. 



The study of Ichthyology has been with me, for many years, 

 the object of a particular predilection. "When in my youth, I 

 spent nearly five years in the United States and Canada. 1 

 collected a considerable number of fishes on the demand of 

 Baron Cuvier. Later, when I was the Director of the Scientific 

 Expedition sent by the King of the French, Louis Philippe, to 

 South America, I devoted much attention to this subject, and the 

 specimens collected on my return, by the Amazonas Eiver, are in 

 the Parisian Museum ; but the greatest part of the vast collec- 

 tion I had formed during the first three years overland, from Eio 

 Janeiro to Lima, was lost. A few of the dried specimens were 

 saved, but all those put in spirits were destroyed, probably by 

 the liquor beccming too weak, and also by the other incidents 

 inherent to a two or three years' trip on the backs of mules and 

 horses. When the Eelation of this Expedition was published, after 

 a few years' delay caused by the political events which had agitated 

 my country, I reserved for myself the Ichthyological part of the 

 work. Having, after the Eevolution of 1848, been appointed 

 Prench Consul at Bahia, I continued my researches in the 

 northern parts of Brazil, and I was enabled to insert the results 

 I obtained, by reason of the delay I have just explained, in 

 the Eelation of my Expedition. Sent afterwards to the Cape 

 of Good Hope, where I remained three years, during which 



