144 SPECIES AND BREEDS. 



organization, but in adapting it to suit his own 

 caprices, is that of the Golden Carp, so frequently 

 seen in bowls and tanks as the ornament of draw- 

 ing-rooms and gardens. Not only an infinite 

 variety of spotted, striped, variegated colors has 

 been produced in these Fishes, but, especially 

 among the Chinese, so famous for their morbid 

 love of whatever is distorted and warped from its 

 natural shape and appearance, all sorts of changes 

 have been brought about in this single Species. 

 A book of Chinese paintings, showing the Golden 

 Carp in its varieties, represents some as short and 

 stout, others long and slender, some with the 

 ventral side swollen, others hunchbacked, some 

 with the mouth greatly enlarged, while in others 

 the caudal fin, which, in the normal condition 

 of the Species, is placed vertically at the end of 

 the tail, and is forked like those of other Fishes, 

 has become crested and arched, or is double or 

 crooked, or has swerved in some other way from 

 its original pattern. But, in all these variations, 

 there is nothing which recalls the characteristic 

 specific differences among the representatives of 

 the Carp Family, which, in their wild state, are 

 very monotonous in their appearance all the 

 world over. 



Were it appropriate to accumulate evidence 

 here upon this subject, I could bring forward 

 many more examples quite as striking as those 



