COLLECTION OF FISH. 4 21 



number of those which are dried have been co- 

 vered with a varnish which has revived the 

 colours, and they appear almost as brilliant as 

 they were some hours after being taken out of 

 the water. 



This collection has been newly arranged ac- 

 cording to the method of M. Cuvier, and all the 

 species have been ticketed with the greatest 

 exactness. The oldest specimens are those found 

 by Commerson, at Madagascar, the island of 

 Bourbon, and the isle of France. When, after 

 the death of that traveller, they arrived at the 

 King's Garden, there was no place in which to 

 exhibit them, and they remained shut up in the 

 boxes in which they had been sent, and were 

 in a manner forgotten : fortunately Commerson 

 had made drawings of them, and it was from 

 those drawings, and the notes which accompa- 

 nied them, that M. de Lacepede described them 

 in his history of fishes. We feel the advantage 

 of possessing the originals in studying the work 

 of the historian. The collection was afterwards 

 enriched by MM. Peron and Lesueur , and by the 

 other naturalists who accompanied captain Bau- 

 din to the Pacific ocean. More recently it has 

 been considerably augmented by collections sent 

 from New York by M. Milbert, from South Ca- 

 rolina and from Guadalupe by M. LTIerminier, 



