GOLD CARP. 319 



much of life as when thawed to resume their vital actions, 

 is a fact so well attested that we are bound to believe it." 



" Perch have been frozen, and in this condition trans- 

 ported for miles. If, when in this state, fishes are placed 

 in water near a fire, they soon begin to exhibit symptoms 

 of reanimation ; the fins quiver, the gills open, the fish 

 gradually turns itself on its belly, and moves slowly round 

 the vessel, till at length, completely revived, it swims 

 briskly about."* 



But to return to the fish before us : I need not occupy 

 space by attempting to describe a species so well known, 

 and of which the variations in colour, fin-rays, and even 

 in the fins, are so numerous, as to appear to bear some pro- 

 portion to the degree and extent of the domestication. 

 M. de Sauvigny, in his Histoire Naturelle des Dorades de 

 la Chine, published at Paris in 1780, has given coloured 

 representations of eighty-nine varieties of this Carp, exhibit- 

 ing almost every possible shade or combination of silver, 

 brilliant orange, and purple. I have referred to variations 

 in the fins themselves. These fishes are sometimes seen 

 with double anal fins, and others with triple tails : when 

 this occurs, it is generally at the expense of the whole or 

 part of some other fin : thus the specimens with triple tails 

 are frequently without any portion of the dorsal fin, and 

 such specimens have been figured by Bloch and others. 

 Among two dozen Gold-fish for sale in London, were 

 some with dorsal fins extending more than half the length 

 of the back ; some, on the contrary, had dorsal fins of five 

 or six rays only, and one specimen without any dorsal fin 

 whatever ; yet this fish appeared to preserve its perpendicular 

 position with the same ease as any of the others. This 

 induced me to make an experiment, in order to ascertain 



* T. S. Bushnan's Introduction to the Study of Nature. 



