188 THE GOLDEN CARP. 



singular varities, that are so often found to occur in domesticated 

 animals, though rarely among such as roam at large in a state of 

 nature. Some gold and silver fish are found with double anal fins : 

 others with a triple tail ; in some the dorsal fin extends some way 

 down the back like the common carp, in others it is of a more 

 contracted form like that of a roach or dace ; and in some it is al- 

 together wanting ; whilst the different shades of gold and silver 

 are sometimes interspersed with dusky blotches, and are almost as 

 varied as the marks in dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, pigeons and other 

 tame animals, so that to attempt to describe all the varieties would 

 be an endless task, though it seems Mr. de Sauvigny, in his His- 

 tiore naturelle des Dorades de la Chine, has made the attempt^ 

 giving no less than eighty nine coloured varieties of this fish. The 

 specimens usually seen are of a small size, the largest I have noti- 

 ced were in the small ponds in the gardens at Mount Edgecumbe, 

 some of which I fancied must have been at least of a pound weight ; 

 and in the supplement to that part of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom 

 which treats of fishes, it is stated that in spacious ponds fishes of 

 this kind may sometimes attain the length of fifteen inches. If 

 these fishes were but sufficiently plentiful there can be little doubt 

 they would take a bait well, as may easily be perceived by the 

 eagerness with which they seize upon almost any small substance 

 that is cast into the water, whether eatable or not ; though they 

 have sufficient discrimination to cast out again whatever is dis- 

 agreeable to their taste, or worthless for food, just as speedily as 

 they first laid hold of it. 



Their spawning time is in the spring, and if proper care was 

 taken of them they would multiply exceedingly. In the small 

 open ponds in which they are sometimes kept, the ducks are the 

 greatest enemies to the spawn, devouring all they come across in a 

 very short space of time. With us as yet they have not proved 

 sufficiently plentiful to form an ordinary article of food, yet I have 

 heard from those who have eaten them by way of experiment, that 

 they are but an indifferent fish ; being both watery and insipid, as 

 is the case with the greater part of the cyprynidas ; the carp and 

 tench being always honorably excepted. In the Isle of France 

 however, where these fish are very abundant and very frequently 

 brought to table, they are very highly esteemed, though 1 have not 

 been able to learn the particular manner in which they are 

 there cooked. 



