Garman'J 
356 
Dec- 16, 
“Having carefully redescribed all the species, I trust the fol- 
lowing paper will present an accurate history of the fishes of our 
state. Considering this as the completion of my former report, 
I have kept in view the primary object of the commission, — to 
ascertain the value of our fauna in an economical point of view, 
rather than to prepare labored scientific descriptions. ” 
The estimate placed by the author on his work in the report of 
1839 may leave an imperfect idea of its real value. As he was 
engaged in revising and enlarging it, it was but natural for him 
to consider it not what it should be. Yet for many years it was 
the standard work on our fishes, and was only supplanted in New 
England esteem by the revised, extended, and fully illustrated 
work completed in 1867. 
It is through this last our author should be judged, all of the 
others being preparatory. Comparing the records included in 
ts pages with the other records of the period, we shall have to 
rank it with the best. At present details are valued more 
highly, but to a considerable extent the details are supplied in 
the excellent drawings from nature, by the pencil of the artist 
Sonrel, so long and so happily employed by Professor Agassiz. 
If we place this work on our own fishes by the side of those de- 
voted to the fishes of other states, Mitchell’s New York, 1818, 
Rafinesque’s Ohio, 1819-20, DeKay’s New York, 1842, Thomp- 
son’s Vermont, 1842, Kirtland’s Ohio, 1839-44, Baird’s New 
Jersey, 1855, Holbrook’s South Carolina, i860, or Holmes’, 
Maine, 1862, we find but one or two that approach it and none 
that surpass. The excellence of the descriptions and illustra- 
tions is generally^admitted. Taking up economic considerations, 
the work is readily seen to be in advance of any of the others. 
Being a forerunner of the fishery commissions of either the general 
government or of the different states, Dr. Storer had to gather 
his statistical or other information directly from the markets or 
from the fishermen. One who has not engaged in similar work 
can hardly realize the magnitude of such an undertaking. In 
the evidence that accumulates there is apt to be so much that 
is more positive than accurate that at times it seems an almost 
hopeless endeavor to discover the truth. The doctor, however, 
has acquitted himself admirably. He seems to have been espec- 
ially fortunate in selecting the men on whom he depended most 
for assistance. Such names as those of Capt. N. E. Atwood 
