284 NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER LIV. 1 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRIXGTON. 



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 

 observing 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 vivary, to 

 which I paid no small attention, taking every occasion to 

 remark what passed within 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 swim- 

 ming-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 collect from pure water frequently changed ; yet 

 they must draw some support from animalcula and other 

 nourishment supplied by the water, because, though they 

 seem to eat nothing, yet the consequences of eating often 



1 This letter was first published in the " Gentleman's Magazine " for 

 1786 (vol. Ivi. p. 488), with the date of June 12th, and under the signa- 

 ture of V. ED. 



