12 



The Avicrican Angler 



there for 150 years, and were still vig- 

 orous; at Fontainbleau carp exist, or 

 did, that were actually bleached with 

 ag-e, and INIanly tells us he knew of one 

 that would score a century; and it is 

 stated that a carp was caught in the 

 Lago di Corra, Italy, that weighed 200 

 lbs. Block, a reliable and celebrated 

 German ichthyologist, reports that one 

 was taken near Frankf ort -on- Ober which 

 measured 9 feet and weighed 70 lbs. ; 

 Mr. Emil Weeger, of Briinn, Austria, 

 says he saw carp at Pesth, Hungary, 

 that weighed 67 lbs., and in the lower 

 Danube they were taken weighing 80 

 lbs. Some eight or ten years ago, 

 Messrs. Darhaus, owners of the Berlin 

 fishery, caught in the river Spree a 

 large carp which carried in its lower 

 jaw a ring with inscriptions upon it, 

 and, so far as they could be de- 

 ciphered, it appeared that the fish was 

 placed in the Hozelhurst waters 268 

 years ago. It weighed 36 lbs. Taking 

 this record of weight and age to be re- 

 liable, the query naturally arises as to 

 the age of the carp caught in Lago di 

 Corra, burdened as it was with a 

 weight of 200 lbs. The simple rule of 

 three tells us that its age was over 2,680 

 years. Of such is the kingdom of fish- 

 annalists. 



According to present and entirely re- 

 liable data we find the weights of large 

 carp in Germany to range from 10 to 

 40 lbs., and exceptional fish may be 

 placed at a maximum of 60 to 70 lbs. 

 In England the heaviest authenticated 

 weight of carp is 24)^ lbs., and a 

 5-pounder is now considered there a 

 large fish. In America it was reported 

 by J. F. Hall, of Atlantic City, that 

 carp in the private ponds of Mr. Banner 

 Thomas showed a growth of 30 lbs. in 

 three years. It may be well to add 

 that Mr. Thomas, on being commun- 



icated with, would neither affirm or 

 deny Mr. Hall's statement, and seemed 

 rather offended at this intrusion upon 

 his private affairs. But be this as it 

 may, the rapid increase in weight of 

 carp under the favorable climatic and 

 food conditions of this country, par- 

 ticularly in the Southern States, is 

 phenomenal. Mr. Amos Smith, of 

 Hamilton, Ga. , placed, on the 15th of 

 May, thirty carp in his pond, ranging 

 from 5 to 8 inches in length, and they 

 commenced spawning at once. Two 

 months later the spawn from these fish 

 were 3 inches long, and continued to 

 grow about an inch or more in length 

 every month, and some of them in 

 October were 8 inches long, and those 

 of the original stock, planted in May, 

 were from 15 to 18 inches in length. 

 Again, Thomas S. Scattergood, of East 

 Bradford, Pa., found the carp in his 

 pond to have grown 12 inches in nine 

 or ten months. Such instances could 

 be multiplied, but it is unnecessary, for 

 we all know to what an extent a prize- 

 taking hog may be pen-fed and fat- 

 tened, hence we should not be incred- 

 ulous when a fish of a certain species 

 is said to have been caught showing an 

 abnormal weight. Put a black bass, 

 or a trout, particularly a German or 

 brown trout, in a deep and fruitful 

 pool, where they do not have to forage 

 to obtain food, but simply open their 

 mouths and gorge it, and their growth 

 will be not only rapid but enormous 

 and, to the non-reasoning angler, in- 

 credible. In this connection, Gunther, 

 one of the leading ichthyologist of Eu- 

 rope at the present day, writes : 



"The growth itself seems to con- 

 tinue in most fishes for a great length 

 of time, and we can scarcely set bounds 

 to — certainly, we know not with preci- 

 sion — the utmost range of the specific 



