198 
TRAVELS m CENTRAL AFRICA. 
species known from this river, so that the collector may recognize 
them on the spot^ and select those examples which_, at present_, are 
most valuable for European collections^ or may be unknown to 
science. In order to facilitate the determination of the species 
by men not acquainted with ichthyological terms^ I have added 
the Arabic names from reliable sources and Mr. Petherick’s lists. 
However^ it must be remarked that most of the species appear to 
have different names on the lower and upper parts of the river_, and 
I have not always been able to find out whether the name is used 
at Cairo^ or Khartoum_, or in some other district. I thought myself 
entitled to give such a general account as the species which I do 
not know from autopsy are but few in number. 
The first* account of Eishes of the Nile has been given by a Swede^ 
Dr. Friedrich Hasselquist^ a disciple of Linngeus^, who visited Egypt 
in the year 1750_, and gave excellent descriptions of thirteen species 
observed by him at Cairo Peise nach Palsestina.^^ Rostock^ 
1762. 8vo.) About twenty years afteiq Egypt was visited by a 
Danish naturalist Peter Forskat who^ like Hasselquist died before 
his discoveries were published under the title Descriptiones Ani- 
malium/^ &c. (Havn.^ 1775. 4to.) He added nine species to 
those previously known. 
Sonnint a French officer^ who visited Egypt towards the end of 
last century, has the merit of having first published illustrations of 
the most common Nile fish, eleven in number. They are perfectly 
recognizable, and the author has added the vernacular names. 
Voyage dans la Flaute et Basse Egypt. Paris. 8vo.) 
* We cannot enter here into the fragmentary notices of ancient and medimval 
authors. 
