734 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
town of Tschangwahyen in the province of Hiantschewfu, 
at the foot of the mountain TsienkingV’ From this 
locality it was first transported to the northern pro- 
vinces of China and to Japan, long before it became a 
luxury in Europe at the middle of the last century. 
The assumption has indeed been made that it had been 
introduced at an earlier date into Europe by the Portu- 
guese, after they had discovered the route to India 
round the Cape of Good Hope; and at the present day 
it is said to be a common fish in the streams of Por- 
tugal. But it was not until the eighteenth century 
that the cultivation of the Goldfish was begun in Eu- 
rope. The French East Indian Company then presented 
some Goldfish to Madame Pompadour, and about 1730 
the species was naturalised in England. From that coun- 
try it subsequently spread over the whole of Europe; 
and at present the breeding of Goldfish is practised on 
Fig. 181. The Telescope-fish, a variety of the Goldfish. 
After Gunther. 
the largest scale in Germany. The neighbourhood of 
Havre in France also supplies the market with con- 
siderable quantities of Goldfish. 
In its original state the Goldfish is olive green, 
darker — sometimes blackish brown — on the back and 
lighter — sometimes whitish — on the belly, with a 
golden (brassy) or silvery lustre, and has the form 
shown, with only slight deviations from the natural 
type, in our figure (Plate XXXI, fig. 2). Cultivation 
and selection 6 are the causes of the well-known altera- 
tions both in colour and form c . The colour shades 
1) into blood-red or orange, ending in the lustrous 
gold of the typical Goldfish, 2) into paler yellow or 
white, a transformation which gives the Silverfish its 
name, or 3) into brown, blue, or nearly pure black. 
These tints either become predominant both on the 
body and the fins, or in fhe light varieties, leave 
patches and traces of the original colour. The changes 
of form tend not only to a more terete shape of body, 
but also to the most grotesque modifications of the fins. 
The dorsal fin is reduced more and more, until it 
finally disappears, or it may also be divided into an 
anterior and a posterior part. The caudal and anal 
fins are doubled ; and when these changes are accom- 
panied by the protrusion of the eyes, they culminate 
in the variety described by Linnjeus in 1740, the 
Telescope-fish (fig. 181). The internal organs also 
undergo monstrous alterations. The development of 
the air-bladder may suffer such distortion as to leave 
the fish a helpless cripple. 
In this manner the Goldfish has been cultivated 
and deformed for the amusement of people of rank 
(‘in Magnatum oblectamentum’, Linnaeus), above all at 
the imperial court of China, where officials have been 
especially appointed to take charge of the Goldfish, and 
where, as Lacepede remarks, the women may well re- 
quire this diversion to break the monotony of their 
idle existence. Among these ladies it has been a shift- 
ing fashion to keep one variety or another, and an 
interesting observation of nature to watch the amatory 
passages of the Goldfish, as the male caresses the gravid 
female, rubbing his body against hers. The peaceful 
and sociable life of these fish and the ease with which 
they may be bred, without the need of any trouble- 
some attendance, have rendered them agreeable and 
cheap pets. By ringing a bell — the Chinese always 
have one hanging beside the ponds — each time the 
fish are fed, they may be trained even in large pools 
to obey this summons and to come up to the shore, 
when the bell is sounded, to show themselves. By 
means of warmth and abundant food Goldfish may 
be induced, in suitable aquaria or in fish-ponds, to 
breed three or four times in the course of the summer. 
The Goldfish hatched in spring are 3 — 7 cm. long 
by autumn, the largest being now ready for sale, as 
they have generally acquired by this time the proper 
a According to the Jesuit missionary Le Comte, who wrote an account of his travels at the end of the seventeenth century. See 
Baster, 1. c., p. 80. At the same period Iyampfer, one of Olaus Rudbeck’s followers, published a book of travels and a history of Japan, 
where he mentions the Goldfish, the lcing-jo of the Japanese. 
h Land and Water, May 3rd 1879 and C. Wagner, Wasser-Cidtur, Bremen 1881. 
c Cf. Baster, 1. c.. tab. IX. 
