THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 549 



Monroe fishermen found in hi.s catch of white-fish the previous week 

 a fine specimen of German carp which weighed 3f pounds. The pound 

 from which the fish was taken was in Lake Erie, about three-fourths of 

 a mile out from the mouth of Raisin River. I was unable to learn 

 from the fishermen of this region the exact year when they began to 

 catch carp, but all agreed that it was "in the early eighties." I was 

 told that when the first carp were taken no one about the fish houses 

 knew what they were, and they were kept on exhibition in tubs as 

 curiosities. It is needless to say that they are no curiosity there now, 

 when hundreds of tons arc shipped from a single place in the course 

 of a year. 



About this same time carp began to be taken by the fishermen in the 

 waters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Early in July, 

 18S3, a fisherman at Naples, 111., on the Illinois River, caught a mirror 

 carp weighing 5 pounds. At Pekin a mirror carp was taken which 

 weighed 6 pounds, and at Meredosia, also on the Illinois River, another, 

 with a weight of 8 pounds (Illinois Fish Commission Report for 

 1883, pp. 10-12). Carp which had escaped from ponds were also taken 

 at or near Hannibal, on the Mississippi, and young carp were taken at 

 Quincy. Their numbers have increased to a remarkable extent, until 

 now the carp forms the most important fishery product of Illinois. 



The Great Lakes are, on the whole, not well suited to carp. Their 

 sandy or rocky bottoms near shore are hard and wave beaten, and 

 support at the best a very scanty vegetation, while they slope off so 

 quickly to a considerable depth that the sun has little chance to raise 

 the temperature of the shallow water to that degree of warmth most 

 favorable for these fish. The western end of Lake Erie and Lake St. 

 Clair, especially at its upper end, on the broad delta formed by the 

 St. Clair River and known as the St. Clair Flats, are exceptions. In 

 the latter place the shallow bays often possess soft, muddy bottoms, 

 and are filled with animal and plant life similar to that found in the 

 smaller inland lakes. These conditions suit the carp well, and it is 

 found there in great abundance. Even better are the conditions in 

 Lake Erie, for the whole upper end of the lake is of inconsiderable 

 depth, while into it open rivers and bays with hundreds of square 

 miles of flat, muddy, reed-grown marshes, which furnish ideal feeding 

 and breeding grounds for a fish like the carp. It is probable that the 

 fish breed, for the most part at least, in the marshes; but they are 

 often fully as abundant in the lake itself. Just what relation they 

 have to the two places — to the marshes and to the open lake — has not 

 been definitely determined, but the probability of their migration from 

 one to the other, with possibly more or less regularity, will be dis- 

 cussed later. 



The most extensive marshes connecting with Lake Erie are those of 

 Sandusky Bay and Sandusky River, which opens into it. the marshes 



