Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/99

 GOLD FISH GOLDONI 91 led with wool and hair ; the eggs, about five, are three quarters of an inch long, of a bluish white color, with brown tinges and purplish spots. Jt remains in Scotland through the winter, though great numbers perish in severe is. The goldfinch is easily caught and Goldfinch (Fringilla carduclls). tamed, and may be taught the notes of other birds and many amusing tricks ; it is a great favorite both in England and America as a cage bird. For the American goldfinches, of the genus chrysomitris (Boie), see YELLOW BIRD. GOLD FISH or Golden Carp (cyprinus aura- tus, Linn.), a native of China, but introduced into Europe early in the 17th century. In China gold fish are to be found in almost every house, and are kept either in porcelain vessels or in artificial ponds; wherever known they are prized for their beauty, elegant form, grace of motion, and docility ; they are very easily kept alive in small vessels, if due attention be paid to changing the water daily. The usual color is bright orange above, lighter on the sides, and whitish beneath ; the scales are large and striated ; the pupils are black, and the iris silvery; the mouth is small and toothless; the dorsal fin is single, with the first two rays spinous. The colors vary exceedingly by do- mestication, and exhibit almost every variety of orange, purple, and silvery ; the fins vary j considerably, as regards the size of the dorsal and the number of the anals; triple tails are common, in which case the dorsal is frequently absent. The silver fish is a mere variety, and the dark colors are the marks of the young Gold Fish (Cyprinus auratus). fish. It is found in many ponds in New Eng- land, bearing well the severity of the winters, and breeding in great numbers when protected from other fish. Gold fish form one of the most interesting ornaments of private gardens, and are seen everywhere in the basins of the fountains of large cities in the summer season. Their food is chiefly infusorial animalcules, with bread when in confinement; their flesh is not esteemed as food. The intensity of the colors and several of their external characters are modified by their food, and the new char- acters are transmitted to the offspring. In ar- tificial ponds they are taught to come to the surface at the ringing of a bell. They will live in foul water, and a long time out of water on account of the loose structure of their gills ; in ponds the spawn and young fish are often eaten by their larger comrades; their life may be prolonged to 20 or 30 years, and they will bear great extremes of heat and cold. In com- mon with many fresh-water fish, they are at- tacked and sometimes destroyed by a parasitic fungus, arising from any diseased surface, and even from the healthy tissue of the gills. GOLD HILL, a town of Storey co., Nevada, 1 m. S. of the centre of Virginia, and about 190 m. E. N. E. of San Francisco; pop. in 1860, 638 ; in 1870, 4,311, of whom 2,346 were foreigners, including 210 Chinese; in 1874, about 13,000. It is built in a deep and precipitous cafion of the Washoe range of the Sierra Nevada mountains, about 6,200 ft. above the sea, and presents a very uninviting though unique appearance. It is connected by daily lines of stages with Reno on the Central Pacific railroad, 20 m. N. W., and with Carson City, 12 m. S. W. It is situated on the line of the great Comstock lode or ledge, the most productive vein of silver and gold ever known. Some of the principal mines on the lode are within the limits of the town, inclu- ding the Alpha, Imperial, Gold Hill (several small ones), Yellow Jacket, Kentuck, Crown Point, Belcher, and Overman. The Belcher mine during the 22 months previous to Novem- ber, 1873, returned in dividends to the stock- holders $8,232,800, and the Crown Point mine about the same amount. There are many quartz mills and hoisting works, some of the mines being 2,000 ft. deep and requiring heavy machinery. The Virginia and Truckee rail- road, connecting with Virginia, Carson City, and Reno, is used to carry ore to the crushing mills, and to supply the mines with wood, &c. The water which supplies the town is brought from the summit of the Sierra Nevada, 25 m. distant, in an iron pipe 12 inches in diameter, across the Washoe valley, 1,750 ft. below the discharging point in the pipe, and thence to Virginia and Gold Hill in a flume. There is a fine hall occupied by the miners' union, and another belonging to the odd fellows and free- masons. The town has a weekly newspaper, three public schools with an average attend- ance of 400 pupils, and three churches, Epis- copal, Methodist, and Roman Catholic. Gold Hill was founded in 1859. GOLDONI, Carlo, an Italian dramatist, born in Venice in 1707, died in Paris in 1793. He passed his childhood in the midst of festivals and theatrical performances, with which his grandfather amused his leisure at a country