14 



bold and easy of acquaintance, especially when petted with 

 food agreeable to his taste and of a different quality to that 

 which he finds in his store ; in fact by repetition he be- 

 comes so tame, that instances have been known of carp 

 taking food from the hands of their keeper. 



At Charlottenburg, the summer palace of the King of 

 Prussia, in the ornamental waters of the domain are a large 

 number of carp, which are so extremely tame that they 

 come to the surface to be fed at the sound of a bell. The 

 keeper has his favourites, and it is said that there are some 

 among them more than a century old. Where carp are 

 well fed, they may be seen basking in the sun on the sur- 

 face of the water during the hot months of August and Sep- 

 tember, and sometimes rolling about like so many por- 

 poises ; they will scarcely retreat at the approach of any 

 one, and become so extremely fat in stews, that a 10-lb. 

 fish will frequently have fat an eighth of an inch thick on 

 his sides, especially those of the Spiegel carp breed. 



Carp and tench are easily conveyed from place to place 

 during the months of October and November, or fishing- 

 season, by means of casks, in which there must be, in lieu 

 of bung-hole, a hole sufficiently large to admit the fish 

 without bruising, and that must be left open for air; it is 

 very rare that any die when conveyed in this manner, al- 

 though it may be for a considerable distance, especially if 

 there be not too many placed in the same cask. 



