THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 543 



The circumstances attending the successful introduction of the 

 scale carp into California, in 1872, by Mr. J. A. Poppe, of Sonoma, are 

 better known. Mr. Poppo left California for Germany in the spring 

 of 1872. At a place called E,einfeld, in Holstein, he prjocured 83 carp 

 of various ages and sizes (cf. Poppe, R. A., 1880, p. 663), the three 

 'largest of which were 2 feet or more in length, the smallest "the 

 length of an ordinary steel pen." The fish were placed in 22-gallon 

 tanks arranged one above the other, so that the water flowed down 

 from the highest to the lowest, when it was dipped back to the top. 

 These were put aboard a steamer for New York. Many of the carp 

 died on the way, the larger ones going first, and onh' 8 reached New 

 Tork alive. These were taken across the continent to San Francisco 

 in safety, but 3 more were lost before reaching Sonoma, where Mr. 

 Poppe arrived on the 5tli of August, 1872, with only 5 of the smallest 

 of the 83 fish with which he started. Ponds had already been pre- 

 pared, and the surviving carp were placed in them at once. They did 

 well from the first, and, according to Mr, Poppe in the report men- 

 i;ioned above, the}" spawned the next spring, by which time they had 

 reached a length of 10 inches! It was estimated that in May (1873) 

 there were in the ponds over 3,000 young cai'p. The young fish were 

 sold to farmers throughout California and adjacent states, and some 

 were shipped even to Honolulu and Central America. The report 

 gives a list of persons in Sonoma County who undertook the culture 

 of the fish, and states that at that time (presumably 1878) Los Angeles, 

 San Bernardino, and the adjacent counties in the southern part of the 

 state were well supplied with the fish, and reports were coming in 

 from all quarters that they were doing remarkably well. 



There seems to be some question, also, as to whether the fish intro- 

 duced by Mr. Poppe were a pure strain, for Professor Baird (U. S. 

 Fish Commission Report, 1879, p. ^-iA), who examined some specimens 

 that were sent to him, sa3's: 



These are scale carp, apparently somewhat hybridized; at least, they do not pre- 

 sent the characteristics of the pure breed brought by Mr. Hessel:" 



He here refers to the fish introduced under the direction of the 

 Fish Commission, the subject which we will now consider. 



Tiio question of the introduction of the carp into the United States 

 was taken up by the Fish Commission within a few years after the 

 organization of that Bureau. The first mention of it occurs in the 

 report for the j^ears 1872 and 1873 (U. S. Fish Conmiission Report, 

 1874, pp. Ixxvi, Ixxvii) under "Fishes especialh' worthj" of cultiva- 

 tion." Professor Baird, at that time Commissioner, there says: 



Sufficient atlention has not been paid in the United States to the introduction of 

 the European carp as a food-fish, and yet it is quite safe to eay that there is no othei- 



n Goodc (188S, p. 417) pays: "Those [carp] introduced into California a few years ago by Mr. Popp 

 were an inferior strain of Scale Carp." 



