92 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



Carp (the first genus of this family) are the body being 

 always covered with large scales ; a single long back-fin ; 

 the lips fleshy; mouth small ; teeth in the throat, but none 

 in the jaws; and three gill-rays. 



Of the groups composing the Carp family generally, 

 some are to be found in greater or less abundance through- 

 out almost all the warm and temperate parts of the globe, 

 India and China producing the greatest variety, and Ger- 

 many the greatest number of the particular species under 

 notice. Austria and Prussia especially abound with Carp, 

 which form a staple commodity of traffic; and in such 

 request are fresh- water fish as articles of food in parts of 

 these countries, that, according to Yarrell, an acre of water 

 will let for as high a rent as an acre of land. The Carp is 

 an inhabitant also of most of the lakes and rivers of Russia 

 and Eastern Siberia; and Valenciennes states that it thrives 

 and reaches to an extraordinary size in the Caspian. 



The common Carp is so well known to most fishermen 

 and others as hardly to require description. It exists, 

 either in ponds or rivers, in tolerably equal distribution 

 throughout the whole of the counties of England, and in 

 some of those of Ireland and Scotland, where, however, the 

 water appears less suited to it. 



Although the Carp is not unfrequently found in rivers, 

 yet stagnant water appears to be its natural element, and 

 in ponds it breeds fastest and reaches its greatest size. 

 Large Carp are occasionally taken in the Thames ; and in 

 some of its tributaries the fish is also found in tolerable 



