CORRESPON DENCE. 
To the Editor of the American Naturalist : 
Sin, — Permit me to add a few lines to the review of Garman's 
Deep-Sea Fishes in the August issue of Zhe American Naturalist, for 
I feel that a work of such importance is deserving of further mention 
in your pages. Possibly the reviewer in speaking of it as ** monu- 
mental" and *the most important ichthyological work of the past 
year" considered such summary praise sufficient. "With this I can 
hardly agree, for the many who are not privileged to see the two 
magnificent volumes will probably fail to get a just estimate of the 
true character of this splendid work. That such a monograph on 
the.deep-sea fishes should be dismissed with little more than a long 
list of species described seems hardly just to the work of the author 
and to the auspices which made its publication possible. One would 
not know from the review given in your journal that this report, with 
its more than four hundred pages of text and one hundred plates, 
forms Vol. XXIV of the Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoólogy, nor that its genuinely monographic treatment of the subject 
has been worthily aided by the customary admirable presswork and 
illustrations which characterize the Memoirs. Two other extensive 
works on deep-sea fishes exist: Giinther’s Challenger Report and 
Goode & Bean's Oceanic Ichthyology. It is noteworthy that the latter 
also is in great part based upon the results of explorations under the 
supervision of Alexander Agassiz. Mr. Garman’s report, while in 
number of pages and plates intermediate between the other two, is 
clearly the equal of either in every respect. It certainly should have 
been noted that among the plates, which are superior to any here- 
tofore published, there are fifteen colored lithographs of deep-sea 
fishes giving the most perfect illustrations that have yet been pro- 
duced, and one of the most important of the many contributions of 
the artist Westergren. Umeyr B. WARD. 
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, LINCOLN, 
September 22, 1900 
