142 . VIGNETTES FROM NATURE. 



rest of the world by a broad and practically 

 impassable stretch of deep sea. If one might 

 hazard a guess as to the future, apart from 

 the interference of man, it is most likely that 

 the carps will first pass down the Isthmus of 

 Panama into the rivers of the Andes, and 

 thence, as the mountain species gradually 

 accustom themselves to lowland tropical con- 

 ditions, into the Amazon valley; that their 

 invasion of Australia must be deferred till 

 some slow secular elevation has done away 

 with Torres Straits and the Java Sea ; and 

 that in all human probability they will never 

 naturally get over the obstacles which seem 

 to shut them out for ever from the archi- 

 pelagos of the Pacific. 



In their origin the cyprinoids were thus 

 Alpine fishes of the torrents, not lazy lurkers 

 on the muddy bottoms of inland ponds. It 

 is only the accident of their long residence 

 among the great alluvial levels of the Chinese 

 basins which has given our own domesticated 

 carp their distinctive specific features. Most 



