72 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



serve for new discoveries. Situated at such a long dis- 

 tance from any continent^ this cluster of islands must he 

 a central rallying point for innumerable species during 

 the breeding season^ and to which they make their way 



from every point of the compass.* 



CHAP. IV. 



ox THE STSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF FISHES. 



(69-) On a former occasion we have explained and 

 fully discussed the nature of those various arrangements, 

 methods, or systemst, which are used by naturalists for 

 making known the objects of their study; hut as the 

 former volumes may not be in the hands of all who 

 possess this, and as it is desirable that each, as far as 

 possible, should be complete in itself, we deem it ad- 

 visable, before entering into the details of this chapter, 

 briefly to recapitulate some of the most important con- 

 siderations on this subject, — the more so, as much of 

 novelty will be found in our views of the natural 

 arrangement of this class, and it may justly be expected 

 from us to state the grounds upon which we venture 

 to bring forward an entirely new arrangement. 



(70.) There are two modes by which the various 

 classes of natural objects may be arranged : one is to 

 view each class or division as isolated, and to construct 

 a system upon principles applicable to them, and to them 

 only J the other is to view them only as parts of one 

 vast whole, and to construct our arrangement of them 



* "We have long had an ardent ■wish to investigate either Madeira, 

 or the Western Islands, — the latter a bright, although neglected, cluster 

 of jewels in the diadem of the young and lovely queen of Portugal ; and 

 ■we take this opportunity of soliciting information from such of our readers 

 as may be living there, or have the means of rendering a six months' 

 residence at some one of tl^ese islands agreeable in point of society, and 

 beneficial to our scientitic pursuits. 



t Geography and Classification of Animals, p. 122. . _. 



