LETTER LIV 1 



TO THE SAME 



DEAR SIR, When I happen to visit a family where 

 gold and silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always 

 pleased with the occurrence, because it offers me an oppor- 

 tunity of observing the actions and propensities of those 

 beings with whom we can be little acquainted in their 

 natural state. Not long since I spent a fortnight at the 

 house of a friend where there was such a vivary, to which 

 I paid no small attention, taking every occasion to remark 

 what passed within its narrow limits. It was here that I 

 first observed the manner in which fishes die. As soon as 

 the creature sickens, the head sinks lower and lower, and it 

 stands as it were on it's head ; till, getting weaker, and 

 losing all poise, the tail turns over, and at last it floats on 

 the surface of the water with it's belly uppermost. The 

 reason why fishes, when dead, swim in that manner is very 

 obvious ; because, when the body is no longer balanced 

 by the fins of the belly, the broad muscular back pre- 

 ponderates by it's own gravity, and turns the belly upper- 

 most, as lighter from it's being a cavity, and because it 



1 Mr. E. T. Bennett points out in his edition of " Selborne," that this Letter 

 first appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1786 (Vol. LVI. p. 488). The 



Letter was signed "V." and had the date of June I2th. [R. B. S.] 



170 



