GOLD AND SILVER PISH. 11? 



Fruitfulness in warm countries. 



the sound of a bell, to be fed, for they are very 

 quick of hearing. The Chinese use a small 

 whistle for calling them together, and it is said 

 that they learn to know the step of the person 

 that feeds them, and make their appearance 

 when they hear him coming at a distance. At 

 Pekin, for three or four months of the winter, or 

 whilst the cold weather lasts, the fish in the ponds 

 are not fed at all. They are able during that 

 time, to get the small quantity of food they re- 

 quire in the water. In order to prevent their be- 

 ing frozen, they are often taken into the houses, 

 and kept in china vessels, till the warm weather 

 of spring allows their being returned to their 

 ponds with safety. When gold fish are fed in 

 China, (which is during the summer months) 

 their food consists of balls of paste, and the 

 yolks of eggs boiled very hard. 



In warm countries these fish multiply fast, pro- 

 vided care be taken to collect their spawn, which 

 floats on the water, and which they almost en- 

 tirely devour. This spawn is put into a particu- 

 lar vessel exposed to the sun, and preserved there 

 until vivified by the heat. Gold fish, however, 

 seldom multiply when they are kept in close vases, 

 because they are then too mitch confined. In 

 order to render them fruitful, (according to the 

 advice of Le Compte, and other celebrated na- 

 turalists who have bred them), they must be put 

 into reservoirs of considerable depth, in some 



