succeeded in catching a male which had very 

 prominent horny protuberances on the opercles 

 and pectoral tins. I at once recognized the signif- 

 icance of these characters, as I was familiar with 

 them on the chubs and suckers, but had not no- 

 ticed them on the gold-tlsh, as I took no interest 

 in the common form. Up to that time in Philadel- 

 phia there was probably no one who could tell a 

 male from a female goldfish, except by seeing 

 them spawn in ponds or ditches. One dealer in 

 goldfish insisted that the male was distinguished 

 by having a shorter dorsal tin which deformity 

 was quite common among them. I immediately 

 began to experiment with small specimens in 

 tubs and found that they would spawn readily. 

 I also tried stripping them, but found that the 

 eggs would adhere together in masses and were 

 soon killed by fungus, and also that it was 

 liable to injure the fish. 



In a letter dated June 26th, 1881, from the 

 late Prof. John A. Ryder, then Embryologist of 

 the U. S. Fish Commission, I find the following 

 in relation thereto: "I am much interested in 

 your account of the breeding of the gold and 

 pearl fishes. Why don't you write it up and 

 send an account of your experience to the 

 fish cultural department of Forrest and Stream, 

 edited by Fred Mather?" As the names are no 

 longer used, it might be well to explain that the 

 all-white variety was termed "Pearl fish" and 

 the white and red, "Pearl and Gold". 



And on August 16th, 1882, he says: "The 

 goldfish eggs (shipped to Washington, D. C.,) 

 were alive and have also afforded me some new 

 points for investigation." Apropos of this I 

 will say here that I have successfully sent fine 

 goldfish eggs by mail as far as Dahlonega, Ga. 



There is hardly the remotest possibility that 

 any goldfish of the type called "Comet" by us, 

 was ever introduced into the United States from 

 China or Japan, or even from Europe. If so 

 it never became a matter of public knowledge. 



The first fine goldfish introduced were seven 

 fantails called "Kin-gi-yo's". These were brought 

 from Japan by Mr. M. Gillet Gill of the tea 

 importing house of Martin Gillet and Co., of 



53 



