i6 CARP. 



enumerating the Carp among lake and river fish. — "A scaly fish {lepidotiii) which some people 

 call the Cyprinus." {Deipjiosoph, vii. 82.) From the Cyprinus being mentioned by Aristotle as 

 having a soft fleshy palate (popularly but erroneously called "Carp's tongue,") and by Dorion 

 in Atheneeus as being especially scaly, there is I think no reason to doubt that this fish was 

 known to the ancient Greeks, and as Athenaeus says, was eaten by them. 



The Common Carp is an inhabitant of the temperate parts of Europe and Asia. It has 

 been long domesticated, and as Giinther observes, it has degenerated into many varieties. It 

 was probably introduced into this country, but neither the period when nor the locality whence 

 it was first brought is definitely known. Cassiodorus, a writer of the sixth century, is the 

 first to make use of the term carpa; he speaks of it as being delicate and costly, and supplied 

 to princes' tables, and as being produced in the Danube. Writers of the thirteenth century 

 designated this fish by the Latin terms carpera and carpo. "The Carpo of C^esarius," says 

 Beckmann, {Hist, of Invent., ii. p. 51, Bohn's Ed.), "appears to have been our Carp, because 



its scales had a very great resemblance to those of the latter; for we are told that the 



devil, once indulging in a frolic, appeared in a coat of mail, and had scales like the fish 

 carpo.'''' The carpera of another mediaeval writer, Vincent de Beauvais, certainly denotes the 

 Carp, as he speaks of this fish's craft in avoiding nets and rakes, and of its springing out of 

 the water and leaping over the nets. According to Linnaeus, Carp were first brought to 

 England about the year 1600; but he is certainly wrong here, because Dame Juliana Berners, 

 in her book on angling, published in i486, mentions the Carpe. It is "a daynteous fysshe, 

 but there ben but few in Englonde, and thereforre I wryte the lesse of hym. He is an evyll 

 fysshe to take, for he is so stronge enarmyd in the mouthe, that there maye noo weke harneys 

 hold hym." Now since the name of Carp is not to be found in the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary 

 of -^Ifric, Archbishop of York, who died in 105 1, and since it is spoken of by Dame Berners 

 in i486 as being a rare fish, it is probable its introduction into England would be at some 

 date between the years 105 1 and i486. The Carp is once mentioned by Shakspere, namely, 

 in As You Like It, Act v, sc. 2. 



But from what country Carp were originally introduced into England it is impossible to 

 say. Webster, in his Dictionary, says they first came from Persia, but I know not what may 

 be his authority. When once established they would multiply fast, for they are most prolific, 

 and being entirely hardy and tenacious of life, they could readily be transported from place 

 to place. "Towards the middle of the sixteenth century," says Dr. Badham, "there was scarce 

 a country unacquainted with Carp; in many, stews on a vast scale were stocked exclusively 

 with Cyprini, and thus an unfailing supply of orthodox diet for Lent and meagre days was 

 never wanting in larder or pond." 



Carp thrive best in temperate and southern climates; when transported to northern parts 

 they are said to decline in size. Carp spawn as a rule at the beginning of June, but the 

 time is in some measure dependent upon the state of the weather. They prefer a warm sunny 

 day, when a female, followed by two or three males, may be readily seen among the various 

 aquatic weeds upon which the little scattered eggs, like poppy seeds, are deposited. They 

 are said to be capable of spawning when three years old. It is not an unusual circumstance 

 for Carp to retain the spawn within the ovary for years ; they thus become enormously large 

 and uncomfortably distended. It is thought that they do not always or generally get rid 

 of the spawn at one time, but that they continue occasionally to spawn for four or five 

 months. 



The food of the Carp consists in a great measure of the soft parts of aquatic plants, 

 and the growth of algae, such as desviidca: and diato?nacece, with which the plants are often 

 overspread, though it will also eat worms, insect-larvae, etc. : even small fish are said to be 

 sometimes eaten. From the form of the throat-teeth, which have worn-down crowns, resembling 

 the crowns of the molar-teeth of a quadruped, it would appear that the food of the Carp 



