eee | 
T 
THE GOLD-FISH 115 
dour, for they are known to have been kept in England in 
the seventeenth century, and the Pompadour was not born 
till the year 1721. At the present day they are reared in 
thousands for export by the Portuguese; yet it is not in rich 
men’s palaces that they are to be chiefly found, but in humble 
village homes, fishmongers’ shops, and in hotels a bowl of 
gold-fish is an object most commonly to be seen, 
A bowl of gold-fish! What an innocent ornament to the 
parlour window-sill it seems, until one tries to realise the 
wants and natural habits of these creatures. Their true home 
is the ample pool or gently-flowing river, willow-fringed and 
with grateful cover of waving water-weeds. Food is abundant 
in the shape of succulent young shoots and larve of im- 
measurable variety. They have excellent appetites, and greatly 
appreciate the different flavours so liberally provided for them. 
Sunshine is a thing to be grateful for, and they love to bask 
in it for a while ; but chiefly by reason that, when they have 
had enough, they can sink into the cool depths and sport with 
Amaryllis in the shade. Now contrast with this the abode 
which civilised man provides for the fishes which excite his 
admiration, and the fare with which he regales his captives. 
A clear glass bowl, with not a spray of weed or a friendly 
stone to break its monotony or afford a resting-place : such 
objects would interfere with the display which it is the sole 
function of these creatures to provide. Food is seldom given ; 
by some good people who keep gold-fish it is forbidden, for it 
is apt to sully the water. Actually when I have remonstrated 
with kind-hearted women for starving their gold-fish, they 
have replied confidently, but vaguely, that they fed on the 
animalcule in the water! Now I do not suppose it would be 
possible to devise a more heartless proceeding—that is, it 
would be heartless were it not utterly thoughtless and brainless 
—than a family to sit down three times a day and eat hearty 
meals in a room ornamented by a bowl of gold-fish. Round 
and round the hapless prisoners swim within their narrow, 
