PREFACE. 
When 1 was commissioned by the publishers to revise and complete in a systematic form “ Scandinavian Fishes" 
the work brought out by Fries, Ekstrom, and Sundevall, with drawings by v. Wright, I was not unaware of the great 
difficulties associated with such an undertaking. Their original plan was to embody in a popular form the results of 
scientific investigation, and with the most accurate drawings of living specimens to represent the appearance and charac- 
teristics of the fishes. As far as the work proceeded, it gained a world-wide reputation as one of the best productions of 
its kind. But it was interrupted, and neither artists nor writers of the same note as the original ones could he found to 
continue it. v. Wright’s still unrivalled pencil and brush had been laid aside long before his death in 1888; and only a 
writer of the greatest self-confidence would without hesitation have come forward to submit his work to the test of com- 
parison with what the power of observation and description of Fries, Ekstrom, and Suudevall had already accomplished 
in the same field of science. However, the Academy of Science was found to possess several hitherto unpublished drawings 
of fishes executed by v. Wright, and to the collections of the Royal Zoological Museum I had caused to be added quite a 
considerable number of figures of fishes belonging to the Scandinavian fauna, which might be of service in the continuation 
of the work. In the Royal Museum are also preserved both the original specimens described in the former edition and the 
fishes collected by Fries and Sundevall with a view to the completion of their task. In recent years, too, ichthyology has 
not been without diligent and distinguished investigators even in Sweden: the names of S. Nilsson, A. W. Malm, and V. 
Lilljeborg are widely known and renowned. The piscine faunae of Norway and Denmark have also been subjected to 
exhaustive research: during the time that has elapsed since the first publication of “Scandinavian Fishes,” Esmark and 
Collett, Krgyer, Lutken, and Wintrier have all been enrolled among the most eminent ichthyologists, and have rendered 
this department of zoology quite as thoroughly known in Scandinavia as it is in other lands. With confidence in the 
value of the material at my disposal, I overcame my hesitation, and ventured to accept the invitation of the publishers to 
bring out this new edition of one of Sweden’s finest national works in the province of literature. But one more difficulty 
remained, a difficulty which has considerably delayed the appearance of the work in print. Remembering the favourable 
reception granted to the first edition in other countries, the publishers were desirous to render the new edition also available 
to the reader who does not know any of the Scandinavian languages, and therefore decided that the work should be also 
published in English. This difficulty could not be overcome until the publishers succeeded in procuring the valuable aid 
of Mr. D. Lloyd Morgan, B. A., Lecturer at the University of Lund, to whom alone it is due that the English edition is 
fully on a par with the Swedish. 
The plan of the work has been the following: in the first place v. Wright’s drawings have been reproduced, and 
where coloured figures, drawn from living or perfectly fresh specimens, have existed among the collections of the Royal 
Zoological Museum or where such figures could be procured from other sources, these figures are also given, printed in 
colours and executed with the greatest accuracy attainable in this country. These figures have been lithographed and 
printed at the Lithographic Press of the Swedish Ordnance Survey. In the case of the species of which such drawings could 
not be procured, or where the species in question is not of essential importance either in the Scandinavian fauna or from 
an economical point of view, zincotypes, cast at the same establishment, are inserted in the text, from drawings, executed 
with all possible accuracy, of the specimens preserved in spirits in the Royal Museum or of those which have been kindly 
lent me by other museums. Most of these drawings have been executed under my supervision by Carl Erdmann, an artist 
whose early loss to science and art must be deeply regretted. 
I have observed a similar rule in my revision of the text. Of the two hundred piscine species that belong to the 
Scandinavian fauna, sixty-four were included in the former edition . In every case where the requirements of modern science 
have not seemed to call for any alteration in the work of my predecessors, I have suffered it to remain untouched. I leave 
the reader to judge with what success I have endeavoured to follow them in their labour of general instruction. My hopes 
of producing a handsome work have been grounded on the unsparing generosity of the publishers and the prominent rank 
occupied by their office in the department of typography; and I have no doubt that an impartial judgment will give them 
full recognition. 
F. A. SMITT. 
Stockholm, 1892. 
