536 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



but in warmer climates the growth is very much more rapid, and sex- 

 ual maturity also is attained at an earlier age. Numerous examples of 

 the rapid growth of carp in the warmer waters of this country have 

 been reported. Thus in a report of the Illinois Fish Commission 

 (Illinois. 1884, p. 10) will be found the following statement by Doctor 

 Adams, of Spring Hill Park, Peoria, with regard to some fish received 

 by him from the State: 



At less than 2 years of age one of the carp weighed 9] pounds, measuring 22 inches 

 in length, a growth of over 1 pound a month from the time it was placed in wa rm water. 



Doctor Adams had previously had the fish in a spring where the water 

 was cold, and they had not done well. Many more statements may he 

 found in the early reports of the United States Fish Commission. 



Goode (1888, p. 411) takes from Cholmondeley-Penneirs "Fishing" 

 the following very good table giving the comparative weights and 

 lengths of carp: 



THE COMMON NAME. 



For the sake of completeness a word as to the name of the carp may 



not be out of place. According to Day (1880-1884, p. 150): 



Carp has been derived from the Greek term "knprinos," itself said to be from 

 "kupris" or "Cyprus," where Aphrodite or Venus was first worshiped, and may 

 have been given to this fish in order to symbolize its extraordinary fecundity. 

 Holme (1688) gives seizling as yearlings, next a sprole or sprale from 2 years of age, 

 terms taken from Gesner's Swiss names of this fish, they not being called " karpf" 

 until 4 years old. In the last century Ave are told (Whole Art of Fishing, 1719) it 

 was called the fresh-water fox and queen of rivers. Cerpyn, Welch. De Karper, Dutch. 

 La carpe, French. 



In the United States it has come to be generally known as the Ger- 

 man carp, because of its importance in Germany and its introduction 

 here from that country. Some protest has been made against the use 

 of the name, as the carp is not in the strict sense a German or even a 

 European tish, but, like the term English sparrow, it is a name that is 

 likely to persist. Both of these names are historically appropriate, so 

 far as we are concerned, since they serve to indicate the source of the 

 first" lots of each species introduced. In ordinary usage, however, 

 simply the word "carp" is used, and it is so that the fish is known 

 commercially. 



<j This is leaving out of consideration the rather doubtful introduction of carp into the Hudson 

 River from France by Captain Robinson about 1830 (see p. 540). 



