314 Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles. 



talented artists, Messrs. Dink el and Weber, in a manner at 

 once satisfactory to the zoologist and geologist, from the 

 strict attention paid to the delineation of details, as well as 

 to the colouring. M. Dinkel accompanied the Professor 

 in his travels for the inspection of the Fossil Fishes contained 

 in the various Museums, public and private, throughout Eu- 

 rope. 



A mere enumeration of the Museums, in which fragments 

 of Fossil Fishes are treasured, with a notice of the variety and 

 value of the specimens in each collection, constitutes of itself 

 one of the first chapters of the work, and affords a striking 

 instance of the interest with which such objects are regarded 

 in Europe. Every town in the Austrian dominions, Swit- 

 zerland, Prussia, Holland and France, seems to have its 

 Museum, which in most instances, contributed more or less to 

 the materials of Professor Agassiz. If England has contri- 

 buted less from such sources, the riches of her strata in fossil 

 fishes, and the liberality of her scientific men, have added 

 greatly to the interesting materials upon which the great 

 work in question is founded. The work is intended to 

 consist of 5 volumes Atlas, with a corresponding number of 

 volumes of folio plates ; 40 pages only of the first volume, 267 

 pages of the second, 156 of the third, 181 pages of the fourth, 

 and 12 of the fifth volume, together with an Appendix of 1 17 

 pages, in all 833 pages of different volumes, and 164 plates 

 are completed. It is now nearly ten years since the first 

 Vwraison of this work was issued, and from the interest and 

 importance attached to it, much anxiety has been evinced 

 for its progress and completion. 



Difficult in itself, from the nature of the subject, it is ren- 

 dered still more so from the materials of which it is con- 

 structed being widely dispersed throughout the various 

 Museums of Europe ; so that it is easy to account for the de- 

 lay with which its completion is necessarily attended, with- 

 out at all despairing of its ultimate accomplishment. 



