THE CARP POND. 137 



Watteau order. For carp are the most 

 absolutely domesticated of all fishes, except 

 their near relations the goldfish ; and they 

 have consequently undergone the usual 

 amount of distortion and degradation which 

 domestication brings in its train. Some have 

 lost their scales altogether ; some have grown 

 short and stumpy, others lean and low ; and 

 some have got their fins lengthened into a 

 perfect caricature of their natural selves. 

 Carp, in fact, come to us from China, where 

 they have been kept in artificial ponds from 

 time immemorial, after the usual Chinese 

 fashion ; and they have been carefully bred 

 and selected for their monstrosities and 

 oddities, which pleased the Celestial taste, 

 exactly as in the case of those marvellous 

 varieties of the golden carp, with expanded tails 

 and stalked eyes, known as telescope fish, that 

 one sometimes sees in domestic aquariums. In 

 England, it is true, the carp are comparatively 

 modern denizens ; for, in spite of the popular 

 notion that they were largely bred in mediaeval 



