PREFACE. 
The completion of the fourth volume of the Catalogue of Fossil 
Fishes preserved in the Geological Department of the British 
Museum of Natural History will afford much satisfaction to 
paleontologists — more especially to those who are interested in 
the study of Ichthyology. Nor can it be deemed inappropriate to 
congratulate the author, Dr. Arthur Smith Woodward, F.R.S., upon 
the consummation of a task which has extended over at least 
17 years, during which time a very large amount of other scientific 
work has been accomplished by him. Iudeed, the present volume 
would have appeared early in the Spring, but was delayed in con- 
sequence of the author’s absence for three months in Greece, 
where he was engaged in carrying out for the Museum the 
exploration of the Tertiary Mammalian deposits at Pikermi near 
Athens. 
Dr. Smith Woodward proposes to prepare, in 1902, a Supplement 
giving a list of additional important genera discovered and published 
since the earlier volumes appeared ; also a Stratigraphical Table 
showing the appearance in time of families and genera of Fossil 
Fishes ; together with a General Index to the four volumes ; the 
4th volume being already larger than its predecessors, and the 
illustrations more numerous. 
It is probable that the Collection of Fossil Fishes is the largest 
in the world, the English Cretaceous Fishes being particularly rich. 
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