258 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



tails only that they and all fishes shoot along with such incon- 

 ceivable rapidity. It has been said that the eyes of fishes are 

 immovable ; but these apparently turn them forward or backward 

 in their sockets as occasions require. They take little notice of a 

 lighted candle, though applied close to their heads, but flounce and 

 seem much frightened by a sudden stroke of the hand against the 

 support whereon the bowl is hung ; especially when they have 

 been motionless, and are perhaps asleep. As fishes have no 

 eye-lids, it is not easy to discern when they are sleeping or not, 

 because their eyes are always open. 



Nothing can be more amusing than a glass bowl containing such 

 fishes ; the double refractions of the glass and water represent 

 them, when moving, in a shifting and changeable variety of dimen- 

 sions, shades, and colours ; while the two mediums, assisted by the 

 concavo-convex shape of the vessel, magnify and distort them 

 vastly ; not to mention that the introduction of another element 

 and its inhabitants into our parlours engages the fancy in a very 

 agreeable manner. 



Gold and silver fishes, though originally native of China and 

 Japan, yet are become so well reconciled to our climate as to 

 thrive and multiply very fast in our ponds and stews. Linnaeus 

 ranks this species of fish, under the genus of Cyprinus, or carp, and 

 calls it Cyprinus auratus. 



Some people exhibit this sort of fish in a very fanciful way ; for 

 they cause a glass bowl to be blown with a large hollow space 

 within, that does not communicate with it. In this cavity they put 

 a bird occasionally ; so that you may see a goldfinch or a linnet 

 hopping as it were in the midst of the water, and the fishes 

 swimming in a circle round it. The simple exhibition of the 

 fishes is agreeable and pleasant ; but in so complicated a way 

 becomes whimsical and unnatural, and liable to the objection due 

 to him, 



"Qui variare cupit rem prodigialiter unam. " 



I am, &c. 



