68 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



honourable monumerit of their joint labours. The de- 

 scriptions are generally ample, and the plates are deli- 

 cately and, for the most part, correctly executed : we 

 sincerely trust that this valuable work has received no 

 check in its publication. It is now near twelve months 

 since the last or twelfth volume was published ; and 

 nearly as many more will be necessary to complete it on 

 the same plan. Such a work, as a general history of 

 fish, is the most perfect yet contemplated; and no library, 

 whether public or private, can be called well selected, 

 without these volumes.. Having said thus much, our 

 further observations will be offered under the head of 

 those groups to which they are more especially appli- 

 cable. Before concluding this hasty sketch, we cannot 

 omit to mention the valuable addition made to our native 

 ichthyology, by the two volumes upon British fishes, by 

 Mr. Yarrell* ; they form a most important acquisition 

 to the British naturalist ; and they doubtless will be the 

 means of eliciting, in a few years, a vast mass of new 

 information on these animals. Notwithstanding' the 

 numerous additions thus made to our marine fauna, 

 the perusal of these volumes has convinced us, that 

 many species require further investigation. The re- 

 cent discovery of that extraordinary fish by Mr. Couch, 

 our well known Cornish ichthyologist, which has been 

 named Amphioxus lanceolatus by Mr. Yarrell, seems to 

 justify our anticipation of the novelties yet to be found 

 on the British coast. We have seen the prospectus of a 

 general work on the fluviatile fish of Europe, with coloured 

 plates, projected by M. Agazziz, but we know not whether 

 its publication has commenced. 



(63.) A few remarks on the preservation of fish 

 will probably be useful to many of our readers, parti- 

 cularly in a volume which is intended as a compendium 

 and text book for the ichthyological student. Unfor- 

 tunately for our museums, no method has yet been 

 discovered by which the rich and vivid colouring, 



* William Yarrell, V.P.Z.S . F.L.S., A History of British Fishes, illus- 

 trated by nearly 400 wood-cuts. 2 vols. Svo. London, 1836. 



