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mile or two of the College. Rockland Lake and Haverstraw Bay were 
on the opposite shore, whilst in the hills back of us were numerous 
ponds and streams abounding with life. Near the mouth of the Croton 
River lay the old Van Cortland Manor House, on the lawn of which 
was a fish-pond, constructed by some of the early Dutch occupants and 
well stocked with gold-fish. During a heavy freshet one spring, some 
years previous to the time I am talking of, the banks of this pond gave 
way, discharging its waters and its contents into the Croton River. As 
a consequence of this, the gold-fish took up their quarters in the Croton 
and Hudson Rivers, and it was no unusual thing when the fishermen 
were drawing their seines in this vicinity, for a number of gold-fish to be 
among the fish taken. These were generally thrown back, but anyone 
on hand at the time could always procure what he wanted and I, at 
various times, picked out such as I chose. These fish had also from 
time to time been taken by boys to various ponds in the hills, so that 
there is no lack of gold-fish in the waters of West Chester County. I 
may here mention, that further up the Hudson River a similar fish-pond 
years ago gave way, well stocked with the European Carp that had been 
brought from Holland. These have also taken to the Hudson River 
and are from time to time netted there. Being of the same family, they 
have crossed with the gold-fish in breeding, and the result is that a 
mottled fish is frequently to be seen, some of which bear very little of 
the distinctive red that marks the gold-fish proper. I have seen the 
latter in the lagoons along the railway in that vicinity, eight or nine 
inches long, and although it may seem scarcely credible, I have seen 
them lying in shoals near the surface of the water on a bright sunny 
day, in such abundance that the surface appeared to assume where they 
were, a red tinge. 
The Hudson River is famous for its eels, and small specimens of 
these were occasionally brought to me. A scoop-net, drawn through the 
liquid mud in any of the tide-water pools along the river margin 
generally brought up more or less small eels, so that a good selection 
could be made of the size best adapted for observation. From the 
experience I gained with them, I would never recommend more than 
me small eel being placed in an aquarium, as two which I first intro- 
duced took up their respective quarters at either end of the tank, and 
