THE GOLD-FISH 117 



Market ; but that was not what filled me with horror and 

 caused me to appeal to the master of the feast. Here were 

 creatures which, like all fish, are fitted for existence only in a 

 modified and diffused light, and which, like all Teleostean fish, 

 possess no eyelids to screen off intrusive rays here were 

 these creatures, I say, confined in close proximity to an intense 

 and concentrated light. 



Imagine a human being shut into an empty chamber with 

 an electric burner as long as himself! Would it not be 

 denounced as a torture of Carthaginian ingenuity ? At all 

 events, the human creature could shut his eyes, which the fish 

 could not do. It took me some time and trouble to explain 

 this point to the constituted authority ; but, when I had 

 succeeded, it is agreeable to record that the subaqueous lights 

 were immediately turned out. 



