GOLDFISH BREEDS 



" These memoirs were made in Pekin by a very able Chinaman, and 

 have been sent to the Minister in France, who has allowed us to make 

 use of them. 



"All the fishes, redrawn and colored in France, have come to us 

 with these memoirs and we are safe in saying that the byrin and colorings 

 of M. Martinet have made the copies better than the original drawings. 



Only one species of goldfish is known in Europe; the Chinese recog- 

 nize seven to which they have given the common name of Kin-Yu, and 

 they distinguish each by a particular name. We have taken the precaution 

 of adding to the Chinese names the French equivalents because it must be 

 remembered that all the names in the Chinese language, as in the greater 

 number of the Oriental languages, have a descriptive significance and ordi- 

 narily take to themselves the principal qualities of the thing described." 



" There are then seven species of goldfishes or Kin-Yu. 



1. The KIN-YU, properly so called; this is the most common of all, first known in 

 China, towards the year 950, and in the i8th Century brought to Port de I'Orient, to I'Hotel 

 de la Compagnie des Indes. 



2. The YA-TAN-YU, or Duck Eggs. 



3. The LONG-TSING-YU or Dragon Eyes. 



4. The CHOI-YU or Sleepers. 



5. The KIN-TEON-YU or Tumblers, 



6. The NIN-EUBK-YU or Nymphs. 



7. The QUEN-YU or Lettered Fishes." 



"The habits of life, the development, the different changes, the manner 

 of propagation and the increase of these fishes are no less marvelous than 

 their external form and their brilliant colors." 



" It is a noteworthy fact that they have been given the name of a sea 

 fish, with which they appear to have nothing in common. However, they 

 may have originally come from the sea; indeed they were first known in 

 the province of Tche-Kiang which extends as far as the sea on the Oriental 

 coast. They may have ascended the rivers by which this province is 

 watered, following the habit of the salmon, the shad, the sturgeon, the sole 

 and many other species of fishes." 



"We know how actively Chinese industry is awakened by cupidity, but 

 is it able to influence the Works of Nature? Is it able to change, so to 

 speak, their habitation? However, if man has been able to transplant 

 plants and quadrupeds from the northern meridian and from the old to 

 the new hemisphere, what law prevents him naturalizing in the rivers 

 some of the inhabitants of the sea? Some of the provinces abound in salt 

 waters of which fish ponds can be made; would it then be impossible to 

 people them with sea fishes? These questions, more interesting because 



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