American Fisheries Society. 123 



Mr. Peabody : 1 would like to have Mr. Lydell's opinion on 

 this subject. 



Mr. Lydell : I never have known but a single instance where 

 the carp has destroyed the spawn of the black bass, and I never 

 knew of their destroying any other spawn. I have handled and 

 opened what few carp were caught at the Detroit river, Belle 

 Isle, Fisheries, during the last ten years, but never found any 

 spawn in them. 



Every one here seems to l:)e friendly toward the carp, Ijut a 

 gentleman a while ago said he did not know how to cook them. 

 I think it would be a good idea for this society to educate the 

 people how to cook these carp. The only experience I have ever 

 had in cooking carp I got from a German friend of mine at Mill 

 Creek. He was a saloon keeper and had been at me for a number 

 of years to get him some carp. Last s])ring I procured him two 

 that weighed about fovir pounds apiece. They were cooked by 

 his wife and I was invited down to dinner. I enjoyed the carp 

 very much and I asked him how he cooked them. He said they 

 were stuflfed with sauer kraut and boiled in beer. (Great 

 laughter). 



Mr. Townsend : Just another point in this connection that 

 may save discussion : We hoar a great deal from sportsmen's 

 clubs and from other sources as to how the carp can be extermi- 

 nated. It can not be exterminated. It is like the English spar- 

 row, it is here to stay. At a meeting of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union a while ago, one of our foremost ornithologists 

 stated that the European sparrow could not be exterminated in 

 this country. I think it is the same with the carp. It is here to 

 stay and we can not exterminate it any more than we can exter- 

 minate the green grass of the fields. I do not wish to pose as an 

 advocate of the carp — I prefer other fish for myself — but I main- 

 tain that the carp has a place in good and regular standing in 

 our big eastern markets, and I do not think that our great repub- 

 lic with its rapidly increasing population can afford to sneer at 

 even so cheap a source of food. 



Dr. Parker : I wish to say just a little bit in regard to this 

 matter. The carp is the most omnivorous of all fishes. He is a 

 hog and will eat everything. He will eat spawn if he gets it, but 

 I do not think he will search it out. I believe, as the president 



