^ THE CARP POND, ' . 137 



Watteau order. For carp are the most 

 absolutely domesticated of all fishes, except 

 their near relations the goldfish ; and they 

 have consequently undergone the usual 

 amount of distortion and degradation which 

 domestication brings in its train. Some have 

 lost their scales altogether ; some have grown 

 short and stumpy, others lean and low ; and 

 some have got their fins lengthened into a 

 perfect caricature of their natural selves. 

 Carp, in fact, come to us from China, where 

 they have been kept in artificial ponds from 

 time immemorial, after the usual Chinese 

 fashion ; and they have been carefully bred 

 and selected for their monstrosities and 

 oddities, which pleased the Celestial taste, ' 

 exactly as in the case of those marvellous 

 varieties of the golden carp, with expanded tails • 

 and stalked eyes, known as telescope fish, that [ 

 one sometimes sees in domestic aquariums. In 

 England, it is true, the carp are comparatively 

 modern denizens ; for, in spite of the popular ' 

 notion that they were largely bred in mediaeval 



