380 Miscellanies. 



generally known as the gold fish, the native of a lake in China, in 

 about the 30th degree of latitude, has been introduced and natural- 

 ized in the Mauritius by the French, where they now abound in the 

 fishponds and streams; they are completely naturalized, and are 

 found in large numbers in many of the streams of Portugal, whence 

 they are carried to England by trading vessels from Lisbon, St. Ubes, 

 &c. in large earthern jars.* It breeds freely in small ponds and even 

 in tanks in England.! Numerous ponds in Massachusetts abound 

 with them, notwithstanding the severity of our winters.^ 



The only instance with which I am acquainted of a fresh water 

 species being removed from one sheet of water to another in this 

 country, is that of the Perca flavescens, yellow perch ; and for this 

 successful attempt we are indebted to the zeal and perseverance of 

 the late Dr. Mitchill, of New York, whose paper on the Fishes of 

 New York, published in the Transactions of the Literary and Philo- 

 sophical Society of New York,§ is of great value to the American ich- 

 thyologist. He first published an account of his transporting the 

 perch ia the "Medical Repository,"!] and afterward referred to it in 

 his paper just spoken of. From the original statement 1 extract the 

 following remarks: " In 1790, Uriah Mitchill, Esq., high sheriff of 

 Queen's county, and myself went to Rockonkoma pond, in Suffolk 

 county, a distance of about forty miles, in a waggon. The object of 

 our journey was to transport alive some of the yellow perch with 

 which this body of water abounds, to Success pond, in the town of 

 North Hempstead. We took about three dozen of those which had 

 been wounded most superficially by the hook, and were so fortunate 

 as to dismiss all of them but two into Success pond, in a condition 

 vigorous enough to swim away. We were enabled to do this by fill- 

 ing a very large churn with the water of Rockonkoma pond, and put- 

 ting so few fishes into it that there was no necessity of changing it 

 on the road, and afterwards driving steadily on a walk the whole dis- 

 tance, without stopping to refresh either man or horse. In two years 

 these fishes multiplied so fast, and became so numerous, that they 

 mio-ht be caught with the hook in any part of the water, which is 

 about a mile in circumference." 



I was unwilling the present opportunity should pass, without offer- 

 ing the Society some few facts to show the importance of the sub- 

 ject, and would now close these hurried observations with the hope 



that we shall ere long be able to adduce successful experiments within 

 the territory of Massachusetts. 



* Yarrell's British Fishes, Vol. l,p. 316. t lb. 



X State Report on the Fishes of Massachusetts, p. 82. 

 § Vol. 1, p. 422. 11 Vol. 3, p. 422. 



