CULTIVATION OF MARINE ANIMALS IN JAPAN 707 



the "astronomical telescope-fish." As a fish, it is so monstrous that 

 it gives one almost uncomfortable feelings. 



It is an interesting fact that in the forms without any dorsal fin, 

 many young show more or less traces of that fin. Sometimes there 

 may be only the first spine, at other times only a few spines, at still 

 others a little bit of a fin, etc., showing that the fin must have been 

 bred off comparatively recently. 



There can be no doubt that of these varieties the "wakin" is the 

 most primitive, as can be seen from its shape, as well as from the 

 fact that it is much hardier than the others, and therefore easier to 

 rear. The "ryukin" is next the "wakin" in its nearness to the 

 original Carassius. It is still like an ordinary fish, although its short- 

 ened body and long, flowing fins show that changes have already 

 gone very far. The "ranchu" seems farther removed from the orig- 

 inal type, as its globular body and the absence of the dorsal fin well 

 testify. The relations that these three varieties hold to one another 

 are involved in obscurity. Some think that the "ryukin" is a cross 

 between the "wakin" and the "ranchu," but I think that this can 

 hardly be so. I am inclined to think that the "ryukin" must have 

 been bred from ancestors somewhat like the "wakin" by careful 

 selection, and that the "ranchu" is the offshoot of another branch 

 which must have separated from the "wakin" stem very early. The 

 cross between the "ryukin" and the "ranchu" is the "oranda- 

 shishigashira," and this, crossed again with the "ranchu," is the 

 "shukin." An interesting fact is that in the first cross both the 

 dorsal and the tail fins are long, but in the second cross the dorsal 

 fin is lost, while the tail is not only retained, but remains long. 

 Expressed in a diagram, the supposed genealogy would be as fol- 

 lows: 



WA 



CHU 



ORANDA-SHISHIGASHIRA 



SHUKIN 



