34 S LAKES AXD STREAMS 



Of the great family of cat-fishes {Siluridce), so abundant in Indian, African, 

 and South American waters, the sole central European representative is the wels 

 (Silurus glanis), a huge ungainly fish distributed all over Germany and northern 

 Asia. With the exception of the sturgeon, the wels is the largest of European 

 fresh-water fishes, and has a large head with a wide mouth surrounded by six 

 barbels, a naked cylindrical body, a small dorsal fin devoid of spines, and a very 

 long caudal fin. The general colouring is olive-green, with blackish spots above and 

 whitish below. The wels is in much request as a food-fish, and its swim-bladder 

 is used in Russia for making fish-glue. A second species inhabits southern Europe. 



The family most numerously represented in European waters is 

 that of the carps (Cypmnidce), most of whose members are vegetable- 

 feeders, and therefore suitable for bin-ding in ponds. The true carp (Cyprinus 

 carpio) is distinguished by the large size of its scales, the presence of four barbels, 

 a rounded snout, and a deeply forked tail : the third ray of the very long dorsal fin 

 being bony and toothed on the hind edge. Apparently indigenous to Asia, the 

 carp during the last two hundred years has gradually made its way into northern 

 Europe. Peter the Great imported it into Russia, and latterly it has been intro- 

 duced into North America, It was introduced into England, probably by the 

 monks, before I486, for though not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Dictionary of 

 /Elfrie who died in 1051, it is described in a sporting treatise of the former date as 

 follows: — "a daynteous fysshe, but there ben but few in Englonde, and therefore T 

 wryte the lesse of him. He is an evyll fysshe to take, for he is so stronge enarmyd 

 in the mouthe, that there maye noo weke harneys hold hym." 



Carp thrive best in temperate climates but will endure intense cold. Some 

 have been frozen for thirty-six hours in a pail of water, when they have been so 

 brittle that a sudden concussion would have broken them in pieces like glass, and 



