174 THB CARP. 



where a thousand brace of killing carp were taken, the largest was 

 thirty inches long, upwards of twenty-two broad, and weighed 

 eighteen pounds. The same writer also mentions that there is a 

 painting of a carp at Weston Hall, in Staffordshire, which weighed 

 eighteen pounds and a half; and according to Jovius in lake Lurian, 

 in Italy, carps have thriven to be more than fifty pounds 

 weight. Bloch speaks of one that was caught near Frankfort that 

 was nearly nine feet long, and that weighed seventy pounds, Ger- 

 many, indeed, is famed for the size of its carps, thirty or forty 

 pounds being by no means an uncommon weight for one of these 

 fish in many of the waters of that country : but the carps of Italy 

 even exceed these in bulk ; instances having occurred of their 

 being taken in the lake of Como of so large a size as to weigh two 

 hundred pounds.* But it is not the size alone that constitutes the 

 difference between the crucian and the common carp : the former 

 being a deeper bodied fish approaching nearer to the proportions 

 of the roach; the head shorter, and the barbules smaller in pro- 

 portion, as also the ventral and anal fins. The color also is much 

 paler, the sides being of a very light olive brown, with a slight 

 golden cast, becoming paler towards the belly, which is white, 

 whilst in the common carp the general color is a deep golden olive 

 brown, inclining to a yellower cast towards the belly. The head 

 of the common carp is also of a much darker hue than that of the 

 crucian, whilst the dorsal fin in the former sinks soon after its 

 commencement, which does not occur in the latter fish. 



But notwithstanding the crucian is in every respect inferior to the 



* The superiority in the size of the carps of Germany and Italyto those 

 produced in our own islands, is said to be owing to the pains that are taken 

 in those countries to select the largest fish only for breeders, whilst we, 

 generally speaking, breed indiscriminately from all. It is however to be 

 hoped that as so much light has lately been thrown on the reproduction of 

 fishes, and that when the adult fish are in a sufficiently advanced state the 

 spawn may be produced, and also fecundated by the milt, by mere pressure 

 against the sides, as has been so effectually accomplished in the instance of 

 the salmon by Mr. Shaw, we shall find greater attention paid to the breed- 

 ing of fish, and proper ponds and breeding fish selected for the purpose, 

 which might be so easily put in practice with so hardy a fish as the carp, 

 which, if the matter were only properly attended to, there seems no reason 

 why our carps should not attain as large a bulk as those of our neighbours 

 on the continent. 



