CYPRINUS. 181 



The gold-fish has become climated in the north 

 era states, and may be found in various places in 

 Massachusetts.* There is a pond in Brookline, 

 in which beautiful specimens may be seen, cours- 

 ing along the margin. 



As it is customary in towns to keep gold-fish in 

 glass vessels, as parlor ornaments, it may be use- 

 ful to remark, that the water should be changed 

 daily, without failure. If tar, or the staves of tar- 

 barrels are burned in the room, it is very danger- 

 ous to the fish ; the lighting of a brimstone match 

 is also very liable to kill them. 



The best kind of food, extensively prepared in 

 Canton, and sold in the shops, is a mixture of flour 

 paste, mixed with the yolks of hard boiled eggs. 



* In Venezuela, there is a curiously formed little fish, call- 

 ed carribi, extremely annoying to bathers. These are never 

 more than three or four inches in length, and are shaped like 

 a gold-fish, which they also resemble in the brilliant orange 

 hue of their scales. Although they are so small, their ex- 

 ceeding voracity, and the incalculable numbers in which 

 they swarm, render them very dangerous. They are, indeed, 

 to the full as much dreaded, if not more so, by a Banero, than 

 the cayman. Their mouth is very large in proportion to 

 their size, and opens much in the same manner as a bullet- 

 mould. It is furnished with broad sharp teeth, like those of a 

 shark in miniature ; so that wherever they bite, they take 

 away a piece of flesh. When once either man or beast is at- 

 tacked by them, they will strip the limb of flesh in a surpris- 

 ingly short time ; for the taste of the blood spreading in the 

 water collects them in myriads. — Campaigns and Cruises in 

 Venezuela. 



