40 INCREASE OF WEIGHT IN CARP. [PART I. 



of about every four, yielding a supply sufficient 

 to maintain, unaided, an adequate stock. To ob- 

 viate this difficulty Mr Maltby purchases the stores 

 of Carp requisite to keep up his supply, when 

 they are two years old, the weight of each being 

 then from two to four ounces, and their price thir- 

 teen to fourteen francs a hundred. These he puts 

 into one of the three smaller ponds, and allows 

 them to remain there for a year, by which time they 

 have attained to about three-quarters of a pound 

 each. They being then rather too large mouth- 

 fuls for ordinary sized Jack, he transfers them to 

 one of the larger pieces of water, either La Hulpe 

 or Boilsfut. After having been a year in these 

 new quarters they are found to have increased in 

 weight from three-quarters of a pound to from 

 two pounds and a half to three pounds and a 

 half each, according to the health of the individual 

 fish ; there being in fact no extraordinary increase 

 in the weight of Carp until they are three years 

 old, when they progress rapidly, until they attain 

 that of about six pounds. After that they do not 

 appear to continue to do so in a similar ratio. 

 Those of the largest size mentioned, twenty-five 

 and thirty-three pounds, he considers to have been 

 about fifteen or twenty years old; having how- 



