96 THE SPORTING FISH 



stance, Mr. Buckland was shown in the Royal 

 Stew two Carp, brother and sister to those in the 

 Obehsk pond, and of which the largest turned the 

 scale at \o\ lbs. — having thus attained a size 

 nearly double that of its less favourably situated 

 relatives. This fish I examined. It had the 

 appearance of being afflicted with an immense 

 tumour in its abdomen, which the fisherman gave 

 it as his opinion was caused by a detention of the 

 eggs — a by no means uncommon occurrence ac- 

 cording to his experience with very old Carp, 

 " which were always bad breeders, and frequently 

 retained their eggs for years." This opinion expe- 

 riment proved to be correct, as, on making a post 

 uiortcDi dissection, three different sets of eggs, 

 packed upon one another, were found, — those 

 nearest the vent being of a white lustrous colour, 

 and ready to be shed. They were of the usual 

 size of Carp eggs. The other two sets of ova 

 had, judging from their appearance, arrived almost 

 at perfection in former years, but had never been 

 shed. They Avere matted together inside the fish 

 in a solid mass, presenting the aspect called in 

 medical phraseology " Hepatization." 



Although a slow-growing, the Carp is a very 

 long-lived fish — the longest-lived, probably, of any 

 fresh-water species — a hundred, a hundred and 

 fifty, even two hundred years having been claimed 

 as the term of its existence, when favourably si- 

 tuated. Admitting, however, that this last may 



