BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 237 



found to weigh 4 or 5 pounds, and in the last reservoir, by autumn, they 

 will become a pound or more heavier, and there they may be fed with 

 old straw, chopped and mixed with pond mud or clay ; straw saturated 

 with wine is best ; the com post rolled into balls the size of a bowl is to 

 be thrown at night into the deepest part of the pond, when it is instantly 

 swallowed. The same is used for the second-sized pond, but chopped 

 finer and cooked in water before being mixed with earth. Sweep goats' 

 or sheep's droppings into the pond for the tench, on which secretion 

 the bream feast, thus saving grass, but this is slightly detrimental to 

 the animals. If duck-weed is not thinned out the fish will die from over- 

 crowding. In a hundred days the fish iu the large pond should have 

 250 pounds of straw. They are marketable in October or November. 



Iu the autumn they hang them up to dry near the chimney, aud in 

 spring cast them into ponds. The vitality of these ova is remarkable. 

 If, says one writer, when they are dried, they are kept from contact 

 with salt, they will hatch three years afterwards. Desiccated places, 

 that have not been reached by water for ten years, on receiving that 

 element have immediately afforded fish. They have been observed on 

 banks from which water has receded for long periods, and again at- 

 tained its former level. 



• The lacustrine region of Suchau supplies neighboring departments 

 with carp and its congeners. When captured in the lakelets the min- 

 nows are only a line in length, but they double that daily for some time, 

 and require to be dispatched with all possible speed to their places of 

 designation. To facilitate that operation, barriers that are closed by 

 night to all other boats are required by law to be opened on the ap- 

 proach of vessels freighted with young fish. 



From the chief of those lakes (the Taihu) the imperial gardens were 

 once stocked by cutting grass from its banks having impregnated ova; 

 the grass was dried and safely conveyed to Shensi, more than 1,000 

 miles distant. On the upper tidal portions of the same district, at flood, 

 waters are admitted into fish ponds, where marine and river con- 

 geuers of the carp an inch iu length are reared for the.Shanghai market; 

 and although they feed exclusively on mud, in the space of six months 

 they attain a larger size, not often having an earthy flavor. 



Carp that are bred aud reared for ornament do not probably come 

 within the scope of the inquiry submitted to me, yet amateur carp cul- 

 turists may expect something in relation to the unique goldfish, as this 

 (Chehkiaug) province is their original habitat, whence they have spread 

 over the world. I shall not be pardoned if I wholly ignore those varie- 

 ties of GyprinidcB. Their study merits attention from naturalists who 

 investigate the modification of species through cultivation aud domes- 

 tication, a subject that does not require to be considered in this paper. 



Approximatively, the eleventh century A. D. may be assigned as 

 the time of the first observation of those fancy carp, although a Han 

 author appears to allude to them. 



