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■distribution before the Winter of 1881, yet we have already on file 

 twenty-three applications for the young of this fish from farmers in 

 seventeen different counties. The carp will certainly thrive in all 

 the interior waters of the State, with tlie possible exception of the 

 lakes near the summit of the Sierra Nevada, where the water in 

 Summer may be too cold. The carp furnishes so large a supply of 

 food to the people of Europe and Asia, and promises to be of so 

 much value to the people of this State, that we condense from the 

 report of Mr. Rudolph Hessel to Professor Baird, the following infor- 

 mation of the habits and natural history, etc., of this fish. He says : 

 The carp is partial to stagnant M^aters, or such as have not a too swift 

 current, with a loamy, muddy bottom, and deep places covered with 

 vegetation. It is able to live in water where other fishes could not 

 possibly exist — for instance, in the pools of bog meadows and sloughs.^ 

 It lives upon vegetable food, as well as upon worms and larva of 

 aquatic insects, wdnch it turns up from the mud with the head ; it is 

 very easily satisfied, and will not refuse the offal of the kitchen, 

 slaughter-houses, and breweries, or even the excrement of cattle and 

 sheep. 



In central Europe, where the water of the carp ponds becomes very 

 cold, the fish will, at the beginning of the cold season, seek deeper 

 water, making holes in the mud, where they pass the AVinter in a 

 kind of sleep. They make a cavity in the muddy ground, called a 

 " kettle." In this they pass the time until Spring, huddled together 

 in concentric circles, with their heads together, the posterior part of 

 the body raised, and held immovably, scarcely lifting the gills for 

 the process of breathing, and without taking a particle of food. It is 

 a most striking fact that the carp, though it does not take any food, 

 during this Winter sleep, yet does not diminish in weight. In the 

 warm climates of Southern Europe, Italy, Spain, Dalmatia, etc., the 

 fish become lively at a much earlier season in the Spring, and Mr. 

 Hessel doubts if, in these climates, it ever goes into a lethargic state, 

 or ceases to feed during the Winter. When' the Spring is early, or 

 the water has become warmed by the sun, in central Europe, it is 

 ready to spawn by May, and continues spawning at intervals for a 

 month or two. Days and weeks may pass before it will have left the 

 last egg to the care of nature. In Sicily, and in Algeria, which have 

 climates not dissimilar to the interior of California, it commences to 

 spawn in April. The female carp yields an immense number of 

 eggs. One of five pounds weight has produced half a millioii. The 

 eggs are adhesive, and are, when extruded, attached to aquatic plants, 

 brush, or stones. The male fish follows the female among the grow- 

 ing water grass and weeds, and impregnates the eggs after they are 

 extruded. If the weather is warm, tlie young fish are hatched in 

 about two weeks. Cold water delays the hatching of the eggs for 

 about three weeks. Ponds of cold water with a rock bottom are not 

 favorable to the growth of this fish. If the water is warm, and the 

 pond has a muddy bottom, the young fish should, at the close of the 

 third Summer, weigh an average of three pounds. If the pond con- 

 tain large quantities of food, the fish may weigh as much as five 

 pounds at the close of the third year. This fish is said to live to a 

 great age, and is also said to increase in weight up to about tliirty 

 years. Ponds for carp, in California, need not be over three feet in 

 depth. 



In stocking ponds, in Europe, it is estimated that there should be 



