734 



SCANDINAVIAN FISHKS. 



town of Tschangwaliyen in the province of Hiantschewfu, 

 at the foot of the mountain Tsienking"." From this 

 locality it was first transported to the northern pro- 

 vinces of China and to Japan, long before it became a 

 luxury in Europe at the middle of the last century. 

 The assumption has indeed been made that it had been 

 introduced at an eai-lier date into Europe by the Portu- 

 guese, after they iiad discovered the route to India 

 round the Cape of Good Hope; and at the present day- 

 it is said to be a common fish in the streams of Por- 

 tugal. But it was not until the eighteenth century 

 tliat the cultivation of the Goldfish was begun in Eu- 

 rope. The French East Indian Company then presented 

 some Goldfish to Madame Pompadour, and about 1730 

 the species was naturalised in England. From that coun- 

 try it subsequently spread over the whole of Eni'ope; 

 ■•ind at present the breeding of Goldfish is pi'actised on 



Fig. 181. The Tolesccpc-fisli, a variety of tlie Goldfish. 

 After Gt'NTiiEri. 



the largest scale in Germany. Tlie neighl)ourhood of 

 Havre in France also supplies the market Avith con- 

 siderable quantities of Goldfisli. 



In its original state the (Toklfish is olive green, 

 darker — sometimes blackisli Ijrown — on the liack and 

 lighter — sometimes whitish • — on the lielly, with a 

 golden (brassy) or silvery lustre, a-nd lias the form 

 shown, with only slight deviations from the natural 

 type, in our figure (Plate XXXI, fig. 2). Cultivation 

 and selection' are the causes of the well-known altera- 

 tions botli in colour and form''. The colour shades 

 1) into blood-red or orange, ending in the lustrous 

 gold of the typical Goldfish, 2) into paler j'ellow or 



white, a ti'ansformation which gives the Silverfish its 

 name, or 3) into brown, blue, or nearly pure black. 

 These tints either become predominant both on the 

 Ijody and the fins, or in the light varieties, leave 

 patclies and traces of the original colour. The changes 

 of form tend not only to a more terete shape of body, 

 but also to the most grotesque modifications of the fins. 

 The dorsal fin is reduced more and inoi-e, until it 

 finally disappears, or it may also be divided into an 

 anterior and a posterior jiart. The caudal and anal 

 fins are doubled; and when these changes are accom- 

 panied by tJie protrusion of the eyes, they culminate 

 in the variety described l)y Linnaeus in 1740, the 

 Telescope-fish (fig. 181). The internal organs also 

 undergo monstrous alterations. The development of 

 tlie air-bladder may suffer such distortion as to leave 

 the fish a iielpless cripple. 



In this manner the Goldfish has been cultivated 

 and deformed for the amusement of people of rank 

 ('in jMagnatum oblectamentum', LiNNji':us), above all at 

 the imperial court of China, where officials have been 

 especially appointed to take charge of the Goldfish, and 

 where, as Lacepede remarks, the women maj' well re- 

 c|uire this diversion to break the monotony of their 

 idle existence. Among these ladies it has been a shift- 

 ing fashion to keep one variet}' or another, and an 

 interesting observation of nature to watch the amatory 

 I>assages of the Goldfish, as the male caresses the gravid 

 female, rubbing his body against hers. Tlie peaceful 

 and sociable life of these fish and the ease with which 

 they may be bred, without the need of ain- troul)le- 

 some attendance, have rendered thein agreeable and 

 cheap pets. By ringing a bell — the Chinese alwaj's 

 have one hanging beside the ponds — each time the 

 fish are fed, they may be trained even in large pools 

 to ol.)ey this summons and to come up to the shore, 

 when the bell is sounded, to show themselves. By 

 means of warmth and abundant food Goldfish may 

 be induced, in suitable aquaria or in fish-ponds, to 

 breed three or four times in the course of the summer. 

 The Goldfish hatched in spring are 3 — 7 cm. long 

 by autumn, the largest being now ready for sale, as 

 they have generally acquired by this time the proper 



° According 1o tlie Jesuit missionary Le Comte, who wrote an account of his travels at the end of the seventeenth century. See 

 Bastee, 1. c, p. 80. At the same period Kampfee, one of Olaus Rudbeck's followers, published a hooli of travels and a history of Japan, 

 wliere he mentions the Goldfisli, the hhiij-jo of the Japanese. 



*■ Land and Water, May 3rd 1S7!) and C. Wagner, Wasser-VuUiir, Bronieii 1881. 



' Cf. Basteh, 1. c. tab. IX. 



