246 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER LIV.* 



TO THE SAME. 



DEAR SIR, 



WHEN I happen to visit a family where gold and silver fishes 

 are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased with the occur- 

 rence, because it offers me an opportunity of observing the 

 actions and propensities of those beings with whom we can 

 be little acquainted in their natural state. Not long since I 

 spent a fortnight at the house of a friend where there was 

 such a vivary, to which I paid no small attention, taking 

 every occasion to remark what passed within it's narrow 

 limits. It was here that I first observed the manner in which 

 fishes die. As soon as the creature sickens, the head sinks 

 lower and lower, and it stands as it were on it's head ; till, 

 getting weaker, and losing all poise, the tail turns over, and 

 at last it floats on the surface of the water with it's belly 

 uppermost. The reason why fishes, when dead, swim in that 

 manner is very obvious ; because, when the body is no longer 

 balanced by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular back 

 preponderates by it's own gravity, and turns the belly upper- 

 most, as lighter from it's being a cavity, and because it con- 

 tains the swimming-bladders, which contribute to render it 

 buoyant. Some that delight in gold and silver Jishes have 

 adopted a notion that they need no aliment. True it is that 

 they will subsist for a long time without any apparent food 

 but what they can collect from pure water frequently changed; 

 yet they must draw some support from animalcula, and other 

 nourishment supplied by the water; because, though they 

 seem to eat nothing, yet the consequences of eating often 



* [Note by Mr. Bennett : 



"First published in the ' Gentleman's Magazine' for 1786 (vol. Ivi. 

 p. 488), with the date of June 12, and under the signature of V. E. T. B."] 



