THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 545 



Bremen to Baltimore, but, owing to a storm of unusual severity to 

 which the vessel was exposed, all were lost on the way. He immediately 

 returned to Europe, however, where, at Hochst, near Frankfurt, ho pro- 

 cured another lot of fish. These be succeeded in bringing in safety to 

 New York, and on May 20, 1877, they were placed in ponds in Druid 

 Hill Park, Baltimore. This lot consisted of 345 fish, of which 227 were 

 naked and mirror carp, and 118 were common scale carp. The ponds 

 at Druid Hill Park not being sufficient for the proper care of the tish, 

 Congress allowed use to be made of the Babcock Lakes in the Monu- 

 ment lot, in the city of Washington, and appropriated the sum of 

 $5,000 to put these in proper condition. In the following spring 

 these ponds were ready for the reception of the fish, and 65 leather 

 carp and 48 scale carp were transferred to them from the Druid Hill 

 Park ponds. 



The fish that remained in Baltimore, under the care of Mr. T. B. 

 Ferguson, spawned in 1878, but some gold-fish had entered the pond 

 accidentally, and the carp hybridized with these, so that instead of hav- 

 ing young true carp there were some 2,000 hybrid young. These 

 were destroyed as being worthless. The results were more satisfac- 

 tory in 1879, in which year about 6,000 young were reared. Of these, 

 2,750 were distributed to applicants throughout Maryland, the 

 remainder in other states. In this year the fish in the ponds at 

 Washington spawned for the first time, and about 6,000 were also 

 reared there. Altogether, in 1879, some 12,265 carp were distributed 

 to over 300 persons in 25 states and territories. Among the recipients 

 were various state commissioners, who redistributed their fish to 

 applicants in their respective states. 



Applications for carp had begun to come in as early as the fall of 

 1876j and the number increased rapidly in the succeeding years. In 

 1877 there were 22 applications, in 1878 144, and in 1879 235, while in 

 1880 there were nearly 2,000. 



In 1879 new ponds were constructed at Druid Hill Park, and it was 

 in this year, also, that a new importation of carp was made from Ger- 

 many. These were brought over by Dr. O. Finsch (1882), a German 

 naturalist, who obtained 100 mirror carp from Mr. Eckhardt, of Li'ib- 

 binchen. These were small fish, a year and a half old and only 6 to 8 

 inches long. Only 23 reached New York alive, although the water 

 was aerated by pumping air into it, and ice was used to keep the tem- 

 perature down. The fish were shipped from Hamburg in coal-oil bar- 

 rels, and Dr. Finsch attributes the large mortality to the fact that one 

 of the barrels was not clean, and to the warm weather. The survivors 

 arrived in New York on the 6th of May. whence they were shipped to 

 Washington without loss and turned over to Mr. Ilessel, the superin- 

 tendent of the Washington ponds. 



F. C 190 J— 35 



