shaped and beautifully marked goldfish. They 

 are Japanese goldfish and belong to the "Kin-gi- 

 yo" tribe. Their parents were brought to this 

 country two years ago by a gentleman of high 

 rank who now keeps them for his pleasure." 



This refers to Rear Admiral Daniel Ammen, 

 U. S. N., who made the second importation of 

 these fish. I have somewhere among my papers 

 a written description of them and an account of 

 their transportation from Japan made for me 

 by the late Captain Z. L. Tanner, who command- 

 ed the Pacific Mail Line Steamer that brought 

 them over, I think "The City of Pekin" or "The 

 City of Tokio", and who afterwards for many 

 years commanded the U. S. Fish Commission 

 steamer Albatross. 



From the stock of Admiral Ammen, which 

 was bred on his estate at Ammendale, Md., came 

 that of the U. S. Fish Commission which was 

 bred and distributed in large numbers by them 

 for a number of years until discontinued several 

 years ago. A few of the Ammen stock were 

 brought to Philadelphia from Ammendale and 

 were bred in ponds for several years, the output 

 being sold in that city for fine prices. 



The first of the long straight-tails to appear in 

 the market were bred from Fish Commission 

 stock in the early eighties by William McCarty, 

 of Loudoun Co., Va., v, ho graded them as well 

 as the fantails, giving them distinctive names 

 which 1 have forgotten but which distinguished 

 the various grades which were based on the 

 sizes of the fins. I remember that those with 

 the biggest fins were called "Gorgeous-Tails". 

 They were in fact very superior to those of the 

 scale variety imported today. McCarty had 

 begun to make sale exhibits in northern cities, 

 when unfortunately having made the mistake 

 so common in undertaking fish culture, of locat- 

 ing his ponds wrongly, a freshet of unusual di- 

 mensions swept away all the results of his 

 enterprise. 



The next to appear on the market were from 

 Mt. Airy, near Cincinnatti. Hugo Mulertt un- 

 doubtedly started fine goldfish breeding there 

 but his experience was very short as his partner, 



55 



