CARP. 



15 



Pennant records the remarkable instance that "on fishing a 

 pond in Dorsetshire, great numbers of Carp were found, each 

 with a frog mounted on it; the hind legs clinging to the back, 

 the fore legs fixed in the corner of each eye of the fish," which 

 were thin and greatly wasted. 



The example selected for description measured nineteen inches; 

 the body stout and thick, sloping forward from the origin of 

 the dorsal fin, but more suddenly from behind the head; the 

 snout rounded; under jaw shortest; lips soft; no teeth in the 

 jaws; a barb at each angle of the mouth, and a smaller one 

 between the angle and the snout. Eye moderate; nostrils large, 

 with a valve or cover; wide across the head, the body stout, 

 belly full and round, sloping at the vent; scales large and 

 well marked, the border of each with radiating lines. Dorsal 

 fin single, beginning above the space where the pectoral ends, 

 and continuing opposite the end of the much shorter but wide 

 anal; the latter fin being wider than long. The first ray of 

 both these fins short, the second long, stout, firm, toothed on 

 the hindmost border. Pectorals low on the body, the upper 

 four or five rays longest; ventrals separate, expanded; tail 

 concave. The general colour is golden yellow, darker on the 

 upper parts ; root of each scale brilliant brown. 



According to Mr. Owen, the bones of fresh-water fishes are 

 lighter than those of the sea; and although this does not hold 

 good universally, another observation appears to do so; which 

 is, that the most active fishes possess the lightest weight of 

 bone, and the bones of the inactive Carp possess more density 

 vhan those of the active Salmon. 



