GOLD CARP. 



363 



" It is well known that in manufacturing districts, where 

 there is an inadequate supply of cold water for the conden- 

 sation of the steam employed in the engines, recourse is 

 had to what are called engine-dams or ponds, into which 

 the water from the steam-engine is thrown for the purpose 

 of being cooled : in these dams, the average temperature of 

 which is about eighty degrees, it is common to keep Gold- 

 fish ; and it is a notorious fact, that they multiply in these 

 situations much more rapidly than in ponds of lower tem- 

 perature, exposed to the variations of the climate. Three 

 pair of this species were put into one of these dams, where 

 they increased so rapidly, that at the end of three years 

 their progeny, which were accidentally poisoned by verdigris 

 mixed with the refuse tallow from the engine, were taken out 

 by wheelbarrows-full. Gold-fish are by no means useless 

 inhabitants of these dams : they consume the refuse grease, 

 which would otherwise impede the cooling of the water by 

 accumulating on its surface." 



A few authentic notices of the power of fishes in bearing 

 extremes of high and low temperature may not improperly 

 be introduced here. 



" Desfontaines found a Sparus of Lacepede, the Chromts 

 of Cuvier, in the hot waters of Cafsa in Barbary, in which 

 Reaumur's thermometer rose to thirty degrees, equal to 

 eighty-six of Fahrenheit. Shaw saw small fishes of the 

 Mullet and Perch kind in these springs."" Travels in Bar- 

 bary, folio edit. Oxford: 1738, p. 231. 



Saussure, speaking of the hot springs of Aise in Savoy, 

 says, " I have frequently examined the temperature of these 

 waters at different seasons, and have always found it very 

 nearly alike (about 113 Fahr.). Notwithstanding the heat 

 of these waters, living animals are found in the basins which 

 receive them. I saw in them Eels, Rotifera, and Infusoria, 

 in 1790." 



