INDIAN CYPRINID.E. 



457 



On the use of Ichthyology. 



Utility will always be found to depend more on the degree of attention 

 paid to any subject connected with science, than on the nature of the subject 

 itself ; yet it is a common remark that this, or that, is important or frivolous, 

 according as we happen to be acquainted with it. When we find any branch 

 of science regarded as useless, we may be assured that, contrary to ordinary ex- 

 pectation, it will prove the most productive field we can enter. Science, in- 

 deed, can only be useful where it has been cultivated, and its principles work- 

 ed out ; practical results will then follow in proportion to the pains taken to 

 develop them. 



The moral interest of Ichthyology having been sufficiently attended to 

 throughout the preceding paper, I shall here pass it over, merely remarking, 

 that in common with other branches of natural science it is calculated to im- 

 prove the mind as well as the condition of society, while its cultivation need 

 not interfere with any duty, public or private ; and few who are placed on our 

 coasts, or on the banks of any of the noble rivers of India, who might not with 

 amusement to themselves, and advantage to science, communicate many ob- 

 servations no where else to be collected regarding our indigenous species. The 

 season of spawning, and places to which the various species resort for this pur- 

 pose — their food — the kind of waters in which they thrive best — whether run- 

 ning or stagnant — with sandy or with muddy bottoms, — would be all points of 

 great interest that might be settled by persons of no pretensions to a scientific 

 knowledge of the subject. 



With regard to the propagation of fishes, Mr. Yarrell remarks — that an 



acre of water will let in many parts of the continent where fresh-water fishes 



are in more request than in England, for more than an acre of land. In no part 



of the continent of Europe, however, can fresh-water fish be of so much im- 



3 Q 



