2 
INDIAN FRESH-WATER FISHES. 
But fishes cio not force themselves upon our atten- 
tion in this manner, they do not show to advantage 
when taken out of the water, indeed to a superficial 
observer there seems little difference between one 
kind of fish and another ; in fact, most people would 
recognise them more readily when on the dinner table, 
clothed only in their appropriate sauce, than when 
seen in their natural state with all their wonderful 
arrangements of fins and scales, and other adjuncts 
complete. 
It is only of late years that any attempt has been 
made, by the establishment of large public aquariums, 
to enable people in general to form any idea of the 
domestic life of fish at home. 
And yet, when one comes to know a little about 
fish, it becomes manifest that they yield in interest to 
no other class of created things, — whether we con- 
sider their wonderful variety, or the beauty of some 
species, and the strange shapes and hideous appear- 
ance of others, or the peculiarities of their habits. 
The study of Ichthyology has certainly peculiar 
difficulties, but it has also advantages of its own. 
One thing which, in the eyes of many people, would 
detract from its interest, is the fact that it is hardly 
possible to establish a “ collection ” of fishes. 
A great many people consider natural history to be 
an affair of cabinets, and drawers, and portfolios, and 
the more odds and ends of sorts they can collect 
together the more they are pleased. (This, as I 
before remarked, is the childish, not the practical 
