144 CARP. [CHA1-. IV. 



pounds being a common enough weight, but individuals 

 been captured ranging from sixty to eighty pounds. The 

 mascalogne, like all its tribe, is a bold and voracious fish. 

 There is also the northern pickerel, another American pike, 

 which does not grow so large as the above, but is quite as 

 fierce and bold as our own pike ; and as the fish is not good 

 for food, although an excellent game fish, affording no end of 

 sport, I need not recommend the acclimatisation of any of 

 these American savages. 



The carp family (Cyprinidas) is very numerous, embracing 

 among its members the barbel, the gudgeon, the carp-bream, 

 the white-bream, the red-eye, the roach, the bleak, the dace, 

 and the well-known minnow. There is one of the family 

 which is of a beautiful colour, and with which all are fami- 

 liar I mean the golden carp, which may be seen floating 

 in its crystal prison in nearly every home of taste, and 

 which swarms in the ponds at Hampton Court and in the 

 tropical waters of the Crystal Palace at Sydenharn. The 

 gold and silver fish are natives of China, whence they were 

 introduced into this country by the Portuguese about the end 

 of the seventeenth century, and have become, especially of 

 late years, so common as to be hawked about the streets for 

 sale. In China, as we can read, every person of fashion 

 keeps gold-fish by way of having a little amusement. They 

 are contained either in the small basins that decorate the 

 courts of the Chinese houses, or in porcelain vases made on 

 purpose ; and the most beautiful kinds are taken from a small 

 mountain-lake in the province of Che-Kyang, where they 

 grow to a comparatively large size, some attaining a length of 

 eighteen inches and a comparative bulk, the general run of 

 them being equal in size to our herrings. These lovely fish 

 afford great delight to the Chinese ladies, who tend and cul- 

 tivate them with great care. They keep them in very largo 

 basins, and a common earthen pan is generally placed at 



