256 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



day in the easterly quarter. They were observed at the 

 same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all along 

 the vale from Farnham to Alton. 



LETTER LIV. 



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 opportunity of ob- 

 serving 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 vivarium^ to which I paid no small 

 attention, taking every occasion to remark what passed 

 v/ithin 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 its head, till, getting weaker, and losing all poise, 

 the tail turns over, and at last it floats on the surface of 

 the water with its 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 preponderates by its own gravity, 

 and turns the belly uppermost, as lighter from its being a 

 cavity, and because it contains the swimming-bladders, 

 which contribute to render it buoyant. Some that delight 

 in gold and silver fishes have adopted a notion that they 

 need no aliment. True it is that they will subsist for a 

 long time without any apparent food but what they can col- 

 lect from pure water frequently changed ; yet they must 



