Fishes Of Malabar

Excerpt from The Fishes of Malabar Whilst stationed at Cochin on the Malabar Coast of India, from 1859 to 1864, the annually increasing importance of its fisheries came most prominently to my notice. Desirous of ascertaining what species of fish were most abundant, and which were best adapted for different manufactures, I was induced to make a collection of those procurable from the sea, estuaries, or fresh waters, with notes on their habits and uses, to elucidate which plain and coloured drawings of each species were made as soon as possible after the fish had been captured. When returning to Europe a note-book and two boxes of specimens were unfortunately mislaid, but one of the latter having been recovered, several species will be found included in this work which are absent from my Catalogue of The Fishes of Cochin, published in the Proceedings of "The Zoological Society of London." The portion of India comprised under the denomination of Malabar, and the fishes of which are included in this work, extends from Mangalore on its western coast, in latitude 15 25' N. and longitude 74 50' E., to Cape Comorin, in latitude 8 10' N. and longitude 77 30' E.; whilst inland it reaches to the Western Ghauts. Having through the kindness of Colonel Sir Henry James, R. E. been shown the mode of engraving on copper pursued at the Ordnance Office, I have been induced to personally delineate most of the new species described in this work, as well as some whose existence was previously deemed doubtful. My thanks are especially due to the following friends. To the Rev. Henry Baker, Junior, who kindly collected many specimens from the Hill ranges of Travancore, a portion of Malabar which I was unable to personally visit; six species received from him appear to be new and will be severally pointed out in the descriptions. To G. A. Ballard, Esq., the Collector of Malabar, for the returns of his collectorate and much useful and interesting information on the present state of the coast fisheries. To J. Newill, Esq., the British Resident of Travancore and Cochin, for the returns from those Native States. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."