88 



GOLDFISH. 



Cyprinus aiiratas, Linnaeus. Cuvier. Block; pi. 15. 



" " Jenyns ; Manual, p. 403. 



Yarkell; Br. Fishes, vol. i, p. 361. 



This fish is a native of China, where for ages it has con- 

 tributed to the amusement of the higher classes by its lively 

 actions in luxurious captivity, as also to the occupation and 

 profit of the more industrious classes by the employment it 

 affords them in procuring and propagating the numerous varieties 

 of its race; for as there is no other fish which has been so long 

 in such a condition of training, so there is none that has so 

 decidedly shewn such a tendency to be influenced by it in shape 

 and colour. We are informed that in that country it is a 

 special business to collect the spawn as it floats in the great 

 rivers, and to sell it to merchants who send it to different 

 districts of the country, to be propagated in small ponds, in 

 which also the fish are preserved; but for amusement also they 

 are kept in porcelain vessels in the houses of rich people. In 

 captivity they are not prolific except in ponds suited to their 

 nature, of which warmth is an important particular; so that 

 they live and thrive in that which to our imagination seems 

 beyond the power of any living creature to sustain. As an 

 instance it is known that in manufacturing districts, where there 

 is a short supply of cold water for condensing the steam 

 employed in the engines, recourse is had to what are called 

 engine dams or ponds, into which the water from the steam- 

 engine is thrown for the purpose of being cooled; and in these 

 dams, the average temperature of which is about eighty degrees, 

 it is common to keep Goldfishes. It is a known fact that in 

 these situations they multiply much more rapidly than in ponds 

 of lower temperature that are exposed to variations of the 

 climate. Three pairs of these fishes were put into one of these 

 VOL. IV. F 



