182 COMMON CARP. 



" It would be needless to speak of the natural his- 

 tory of this well-flavoured fish, after the satisfactory 

 account given of it in the British Zoology by that 

 most accurate zoologist Mr. Pennant. I will only 

 observe that though the carp is now commonly 

 found in ponds and rivers, and generally thought 

 to be a fresh-water fish, the ancient zoologists 

 ranged it among the sea-fish; and I know instances 

 of its being caught; in the harbour of Dantzig, be- 

 tween that cUy and a little town called I Ida, which 

 is situated at the extremity of a long, narrow, sandy 

 promontory, projecting eastwards into the sea, and 

 forming the gulf before Dantzig, of about 30 Eng- 

 lish miles diameter. These ear]) vu.-re forced, as I 

 suppose, by a storm from the mouth of the Vistula, 

 which here enters the Baltic, into the sea: and as 

 the other two branches of the Vistula or Weixei 

 disembogue into a large fresh-water lake called the 

 Trish-IIaff, which has a communication with the sea 

 at Pillau, it is equally probable that these fish came 

 round from Pillau to the harbour of Dantzig ; 

 especially as they are frequently found in the Trish* 

 Haff." 



" The sale of carp makes a part of the revenue 

 of the nobility and gentry in Prussia, Pomerania, 

 Brandenburgh, Saxony, Bohemia, Mecklenburgh, 

 and Holstein ; and the way of managing this useful 

 fish is therefore reduced in these countries into a 

 kind of system, built on a great number of experi- 

 ments, made during several generations, in the 

 families of gentlemen well skilled in every branch 

 of husbandry." 



