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contains the swimming-bladders, which contribute to render it 

 buoyant. Some that delight in gold and silver fishes have adopted 

 a notion that they need no aliment. True it is that they will 

 subsist for a long time without any apparent food but what they 

 can collect from pure water frequently changed ; yet they must 

 draw some support from animalcula, and other nourishment 

 supplied by the water ; because, though they seem to eat 

 nothing, yet the consequences of eating often drop from them. 

 That they are best pleased with such jejune diet may easily be 

 confuted, since if you toss them crumbs they will seize them 

 with great readiness, not to say greediness : however, bread 

 should be given sparingly, lest, turning sour, it corrupt the 

 water. They will also feed on the water-plant called lemna 

 (duck's meat), and also on small fry. 



When they want to move a little they gently protrude themselves 

 with their pinnce pectorales ; but it is with their strong muscular 

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

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

 immoveable : but these apparently turn them forward or backward 

 in their sockets as their 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 eyelids, 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 

 dimensions, 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 it's inhabitants into our parlours engages the fancy 

 in a very agreeable manner. 



Gold and silver fishes, though originally natives 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. Linnceus 

 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 



