•where they abound. It is subject to much variation, not only 

 in the colour but in the fins, which are sometimes double, and 

 not unfrequently have triple tails. In the latter case, however, 

 it appears that the tail is thus developed at the expense of 

 part or the whole of some other fin. When young the gold 

 carp is of a very dark colour, approaching to black ; this dark 

 colour is replaced by the golden-red hue, more or less early 

 according to the constitution of the individual. The silver 

 carp is merely a variety of the same species, and both are as 

 hardy as the comnsonest sorts, if treated with ordinary care. 



Their tenacity of life is curiously illustrated in a paper 

 furnished some time ago to Household Words by a celebrated 

 naturalist : — " Last summer I was invited to inspect the result 

 of a haul of gold fish from a small garden-pond near London. 

 So mighty was the draught that it three-quarters fiUed a 

 watering-cart, such as is used in London for watering the 

 streets. All colours of the rainbow were reflected from their 

 resplendent bodies. On sorting them, my surprise was great 

 to find the majority of them alive, although, at that time, they 

 had been out of the water twelve long hours. By the kind 

 permission of the owner I selected half a dozen of the finest, 

 intending to have a fry, never having tasted such a regal dish. 

 These victims were placed in a basket, and left all night in a 

 cellar. The next day their panting gills proclaimed that Kfe 

 was not yet extinct. I placed them in a tub of water, and in 

 a few minutes aU but one recovered their spirits, and swam 

 about as though nothing had happened; thus escaping the 

 firying-pan, to spend the remainder of their days in a glass 

 bowl." 



The common carp, although not as gorgeous as his Chinese 

 relation, is a handsome fellow, ffis upper parts are of a rich 

 olive-brown, darker about the head than elsewhere ; the under 

 parts delicate cream-colour ; and the fins brown, tinged with 

 red. It is wonderfully prolific, and its roe has been sometimes 

 found to turn the scale against the rest of the carcass. It is 

 capable of attaining a very great age — two hundred years, say 

 some naturalists, though others modestly fix the maximum of 

 the carp's life at a century. Unless, however, your aquaria be 

 of large dimensions, the carp will be found a little large, being 

 commonly at least a foot long. 



The species known as the Prussian carp is much more suitable. 



It may be easily known from the common carp by possessing no 



barbules on the Ups. Its colours closely resemble those of the 



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