FISH AND FISHING IN AMERICA. 



?Y WM. C. HARRIS. 



(Continued from page 17.) 



The edible qualities of the carp after 

 an habitation of twenty years in Ameri- 

 can waters, is still somewhat a mooted 

 question. It certainly is considered in 

 Germany and Russia a desirable table 

 fish, but in these countries it is subjected 

 to heroic treatment before and after it 

 reaches the kitchen. It is placed in 

 pure running water for several days, 

 often weeks, before it is cooked, and 

 when in the hands of the cJicf it is 

 usually so smothered in condiments 

 that little or none of the natural flavor 

 of the fish is left. As a table fish in 

 America it is not esteemed, despite the 

 efforts of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission, which for several years at- 

 tempted to prove, at considerable 

 expense to the Government, the good 

 eating qualities of the fish, yet even the 

 farmer, upon whose table fish food is 

 rarely seen, could not be made to 

 stomach a dish of carp. In 1884 I first 

 ate of the carp, and thus recorded my 

 experience : 



A correspondent, referring to an extract 

 from a Kentucky journal in which the carp as 

 a table fish was deprecated to the extent that 

 the people of the State " wanted no more carp " 

 in their waters, asks our opinion upon the mat- 

 ter, and it chances, quite fortunately or unfor- 

 tunately, that during a recent visit to the State 

 Hatchery at Caledonia, N. Y., we ate this fish, 

 fried and boiled. The two fish were each of 

 about half a pound in weight, and were cooked 

 without seasoning other than pepper and salt, 

 with butter used in frying. They were taken 

 from a surplus pond which contained relatively 

 pure water, and were captured on light tackle 

 and a barbless hook, giving fair play, some- 

 what similar to that of a white perch of equal 

 weight. The fried fish was of the better flavor, 

 tasting somewhat, when first put in the mouth, 

 like the river chub similarly cooked. The 



boiled fish was agreeable to the palate when 

 first tasted, but both of them, when masticated, 

 acquired a gummy consistency, measurably to 

 be compared to the form that chewing gum as- 

 sumes after manipulation by the teeth. We do 

 not " hanker " for carp. 



But, considering its failure as a table 

 fish, the carp holds a still less creditable 

 place with American sportsmen. For 

 years it has been eliminated from the 

 angler's list of desirable hook and line 

 fishes, and considered dangerous, from 

 its spawn-eating habits, to the increase 

 of better species, and now to this pro- 

 test against its propagation and protec- 

 tion is added the forcible outcry of the 

 sportsman who uses a gun. From all 

 over the country we hear that the carp 

 is eating up the vegetation upon which 

 our choicest wild fowl feed and that 

 sections, formally visited in numbers 

 by ducks and geese, are being deserted 

 entirely as feeding grounds. In the 

 swamps and marshes of California, the 

 carp have bred so enormously that they 

 have destroyed the grasses and the 

 planted food for wild fowl on pri- 

 vate and public properties. Many 

 clubs are draining their ponds in the 

 hope to eradicate this fish, but it will be 

 well to do the work thoroughly, for Mr. 

 Louis Papineau, of Monte Bello, Canada^ 

 tells us of a carp pond being drained, 

 cleaned and exposed for some days until 

 it was thoroughly dry. On the sixth 

 day water was introduced, and some 

 hours after several large carp were seen, 

 swimming near the surface. This is an- 

 other striking instance of the vitality of 

 this fish, which evidently buried inta 

 the mud as the pond was drained. 



The destructive nature of the carp to 



