306 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



numbers of specimens of the so-called carp of the Hudson Eiver, and 

 found it to be essentially a goldfish, reverted to its original condition. 

 I think it likely that Captain Eobinson's carp were the so-called Rus- 

 sian carj), a very inferior variety, which had hybridized with the gold- 

 fish introduced at the same time by him or some one else, and i^roduc- 

 ing a combination without the virtues of either. I can at any rate say 

 tliat the fish introduced by the United States Fish Commission are 

 totally different from any previously in Eastern waters, and of much 

 superior quality as an article of food. Some years ago, when at Sing 

 Sing, I examined several cart-loads of so called carp, with the result 

 indicated. I have since examined various fish sold as carp in the Kew 

 York market, and with the same results." 



The food value of the caep. — When writing to Hon. J. G. Car- 

 lisle, Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives, January 4, 1884, Pro- 

 fessor Baird said : " There is naturally much difference of opinion as 

 to the value of the carp as an aiticlo of food. No one who has at 

 his command the choice fishes, such as salmon, trout, whitefish, mack- 

 erel, sheepshead, red snapper, &c., would be likely to attach a high 

 value to the flesh of the carp. But in Germany and Austria it consti- 

 tutes the principal article of consumption in the interior, and brings pre- 

 cisely the same price in the city markets as the native trout. In Berlin 

 it brings about 25 cents per pound. Much, of course, depends upon the 

 mode of cooking and the idiosyncrasies of the taster. 



''What we claim, in patent specification parlance, is to furnish a fish 

 which can be reared with a minimum of labor in waters of any charac- 

 ter — warm or cold, muddy or clear, confined or extended — and one that 

 will attain an enormous growth in a very short time, and by its readi- 

 ness to live on vegetable offal, will convert such substances as corn, 

 pumpkins, squashes, cabbages, wild rice, seeds of aquatic plants, &c., 

 into wholesome animal food in countries where other varieties of such 

 food cannot be obtained. It may safely be stated that a given amount 

 of vegetable matter fed to carp will produce twice as much flesh as 

 when given to pigs or poultry." 



Carp in Susquehanna Eiver. — Mr. A. C. Krueger, of Wrightsville, 

 Pa., July 22, 18^4, reports a carp weighing about 4 pounds, being taken 

 in a set-net below the Columbia dam on the Susquehanna. It had doubt- 

 less escaped from some private pond, but may have been in the river 

 some time. 



Carp in Lake Erie. — Mr. C. Sterling, secretary of the Michigan 

 State Agricultural Society, writing from Monroe, Mich., December 10, 

 1883, reports that one of the Monroe fishermen had found in his catch 

 of whitefish a fine specimen of German carp, which weighed 3f pounds. 

 The pond fiom which it was taken was located in Lake Erie, about 

 three-quarters of a mile from the mouth of the Eaisin Eiver. 



