M. Agassi z on Fishes. 



333 



the United Service Club; the beautiful collection of Mrs Mur- 

 cheson ; the cabinets of Messrs Lyell, Stokes, Fitton, Sharpe, 

 Yarrell, and Richardson ; all in the vicinity of London. Great 

 additions were obtained from the collection of Dr Buckland and 

 the splendid cabinets of Sir Philip Egerton and Lord Cole. The 

 fine collection of Mr Witham, and the Museums of Whitby, 

 Scarborough, York, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bristol, 

 also proved productive sources of new and interesting species. 

 The private collections of Miss Philpot and Mr Cumberland, 

 and the well known museum of Dr Mantel), contributed an am- 

 ple supply of species entirely new to M. Agassiz. At Edin- 

 burgh the collections of the Royal Society and the College Mu- 

 seum ; the cabinets of Professor Jameson, Lord Greenock, Dr 

 Hibbert, Dr Traill, Mr Copland, and Mr Jameson Torrie, 

 proved not less interesting than those visited by our author in 

 England and Ireland. After enumerating the above and other 

 collections in very courteous terms, he adds the following obser- 

 vations. 



These notices concerning the rich and splendid materials with 

 which, from so many quarters, I have been favoured during the past 

 year, naturally suggest some additional remarks concerning that por- 

 tion of our work which has been already executed, and also regarding 

 that which still remains for the furtherance of the science of fossil 

 fishes. 



The study of Ichthyology has, in all past ages, been much neglect- 

 ed, in comparison with that of the other branches of natural history. 

 The extreme difficulty which exists in observing fishes in their wa- 

 tery haunts, and in collecting authentic facts regarding their habits, 

 and the whole of their animal economy, has rendered this science 

 much less attractive than the history of the great mammiferae, and of 

 the feathered tribes. Even reptiles, hideous and ofttimes dangerous 

 as they are, have found more admirers than fishes; and concerning 

 the attractions of entomology and conchology, we need say nothing. 

 In the midst of so many favourite fields of research, fishes have re- 

 mained hid from us in the vast oceans which they inhabit, for the 

 number of those already described is comparatively small ; and if the 

 great work on Ichthyology of Cuvier and Valenciennes promised us 

 the description of from six to eight thousand species, the greater is 

 our regret that the volumes which have hitherto appeared contain no 

 more, than a fifth part of the number. And now, notwithstanding all 

 these attending difficulties, the first steps being taken, and an en- 

 trance effected into these new regions, what a world of wonders pre- 

 sents itself in the depths of the ocean, and in the inaccessible haunts 

 of the creatures which inhabit it ? In approximating to these results* 

 we unfortunately cannot repose confidence on any guides whom we 

 now possess, since the older amongst them reveal but a few species, 



VOL. XIX. NO. XXXVIII. OCTOBER 1835. Z 



