704 OCEANOGRAPHY 



There are several minor turtle-farms besides those mentioned 

 above, but as they are all modeled after those under Mr. Hattori's 

 management, they need not be described further. 



The Goldfish (Carassius auratus, Linnaeus) 



The goldfish is the characteristically Oriental domesticated fish. 

 Its beautiful bright coloration and graceful form, with long, flowing 

 fins, appeal most strongly to one's sense of the beautiful. It also is 

 intensely interesting from the scientific standpoint, and proves a 

 source of endless surprises to the biologist, for it is a plastic material 

 with which skillful breeding can, within certain limits, do almost 

 anything. Our goldfish-breeders seem to have understood the 

 principle of "breeding to a point" to perfection, and I have often 

 been interested in hearing some of them talk in a way which re- 

 minded me of passages in the Origin of Species or other Dar- 

 winian writings. This must be considered remarkable, for these 

 breeders are, as a general thing, without much education, and have 

 obtained all their knowledge from the practical handling of the fish. 



The history of the gold- 

 fish is lost in obscurity. 

 Like so many things in 

 Japan, it seems to be an 

 importation from China. 

 There is a record that 

 about four hundred years 



ago that is, about the 



, _ n .. , , , Fig. 3. Diagram of the tail of a goldfish. 



year 1500 - - some goldfish 0> Three-lobed; b, four-lobed. 



were brought from China 



to Sakai, a town near Osaka. The breed then brought in is said to 

 be that now known as the "wakin." There must also have been 

 several later importations, and the Japanese must have improved 

 vastly on the original forms, as in so many other cases of things 

 introduced from foreign countries. Several varieties have thus re- 

 sulted, but before proceeding to describe these I may say a few 

 words about goldfish in general. A characteristic of the goldfish, 

 no matter of what variety, is that the black pigment with which 

 the body is uniformly colored when first hatched from the egg dis- 

 appears in a year or so and gives place to bright colors, which are 

 of various shades between carmine and vermilion red, and which 

 may be either spread all over the body or variegated with white in 

 various degrees. A fish that is entirely white fetches no price in 

 the market, and is mercilessly eliminated in the first year. A fish 

 with the white body variegated with red around the lips and on 

 the opercula and all the fins is considered to have the best colora- 



a 



