VA1MKTIHS OF THE CARP. 619 



favored tlu> establishment of ponds in liis (loniinioiiH, and the monks were especially assiduous in 

 the culture of fish in ponds. As curly as the first half of the fourteenth century, Bohemia had its 

 first large carp poi-d. and the culture of this fish progressed in that country, as also in Poland, 

 ami that district \vliich now comprises German Austria; also in I pj.fi Lusutiu, Saxony, Silesia 

 and Havana. A celebrated c Mablishment for carp-culture, with large, extensive ponds, was 

 located, as early as the fourteenth century, near the town of Wittinguu, in Bohemia, Austria. The 

 first beginning of it may be traced back to the year 1367. At that time the lords of Rosenberg 

 called into existence and maintained for centuries these establishments on a scale so extensive 

 that to this day they are the admiration of the visitor, the main parts having survived, while the 

 race of the Uosenbergs has long been extinct. 



The manor of Wittiugau suffered greatly from the calamities of the Thirty Years' War, and 

 with it, in consequence, its fish-culture. The latter only recovered the effects of it after passing, 

 together with the large estate of a rich monastery of the same name, in the year 1670, into pos- 

 session of the princes of Schwarzenberg, their present owners. The extent which carp culture 

 has reached on these princely domains will be seen from the circumstance that their artificial ponds 

 comprise an area of no less than twenty thousand acres. The proceeds amount to about five hundred 

 thousand pounds of Carp per annum. The ponds of the princes of Schwarzenberg are probably 

 i In- most extensive of the kind on the globe. They are usually situated in some undulating low- 

 laud country, where small valleys have been closed in by gigantic dams for the purpose of forming 

 reservoirs. Similar establishments, though not equally extensive, are found in the provinces of 

 Silesia and Brandenburg; as, for instance, near Breslau and Cottbus, in Peitz and Pleitz, which I 

 visited last year. In Hesse-Cassel, Hanover, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, and Holstein there are also 

 many hundreds of ponds, none of them covering more than a few acres, but almost every large 

 farm possessing at least one of them. 



It will be easily understood that after such an exclusive culture in ponds, continued through 

 centuries, as also an existence in open water, where the Cyprinidce were left more to themselves, a 

 number of varieties or rather genuine species Cyprinua carpio, showing striking differences from 

 the races, were developed : these races, though derived directly from the original type, just as with 

 our domestic animals. They are divided into three chief groups : 



1. Cyprinus carpio communis, the "Scale Carp"; with regular, concentrically arranged scales, 

 being, in fact, the original species improved. 



2. Cyprinus carpio specularis, the " Mirror Carp" ; thus named on account of the extraordinarily 

 large scales which run along the sides of the body in three or four rows, the rest of the body being 

 bare. 



3. Cyprinus carpio coriaceus, sive nudtut, the " Leather Carp" ; which has on the back either 

 only a few scales or none at all, and possesses a thick, soft skin, which feels velvety to the touch. 



The two last named are distinguished from the original form by a somewhat shorter and 

 stouter but more fleshy body. It is rather difficult to decide which of these three species is the 

 most suitable for culture. There are some districts where only Scale Carp are bred and Mirror 

 Carp are not valued, as there is no demand for any but the former in the market, as, for instance, 

 in Bohemia, in the above-mentioned domain of Wittingau. Again, in other districts, as in parts of 

 Bavaria and Saxony, etc., for the same reason, Mirror Carp or Leather Carp only are bred. There 

 is, in fact, no sufficient reason for making any distinction among these three varieties, for if they 

 are genuine types of their respective species, they are indeed excellent and desirable fish. 



The assertion which has been made at times that the Scale Carp is better adapted for trans- 

 portation than either the Mirror or Leather Carp by reason of its coat of scales, which would pro- 



