90 Thiriy-spventlt Aiiiiiki] Meefinfj 



getting from all other fishes, so tliey have said. There are tliose 

 who will tell you that the carp is destructive, that it eats gallon^ 

 of eggs of whitefish and all other fishes, hut such statements are 

 usually very recklessly made. One person showed a carp wliieh 

 he said had a gallon of whitefish eggs in its stomaeli in June. 

 (Laughter.) The eggs were not whitefish eggs, hut were the 

 carp's own eggs, (laughter) — not that it had eaten them, hut 

 tliey were in proper place — a little delayed Init still there. 

 (Laughter.) 



President: We have witli us today a number of gentlemen 

 who can tell us a good deal about the carp and its destructive 

 habits in Europe, and I am sure it will be a great pleasure ro the 

 society to hear from one or more of these gentlemen. I would 

 like to call on Dr. H'oek for a brief statement of the attitude ot 

 the European public toward the carp in open Avaters so far as the 

 destructiveness of the fish is concerned. 



Dr. P. P. C. Hoek, Holland : 1 should like to give you an 

 answer, but I cannot, as I am not sufficiently acquainted with 

 the habits of the carp. But perhaps Dr. Nordquist may know. 



Dr. Oscar JSTordquist, Lund, Sweden : In Sweden we are do- 

 ing all that we can to increase the carj), but I must tell you that 

 the carp does not spawn there in free waters in the lakes. We 

 cannot get it to spawn in any other way than in small ponds 

 built just for the spawning of the carp, Init we never have no- 

 ticed any destructive qualities in the carp. We consider it to bi' 

 one of the best fish we can introduce. It is possible that in cli- 

 mates warmer than ours carp ])ropagate more rapidly than with 

 us, but there it does no liarni. There is no fish T think, which 

 can utilize the food, existing in a lake, so well as the eai'|) does, 

 Init that I think is the only way in which it can do harm to other 

 fishes. I have seen in American papers that by roiling and mak- 

 ing the water muddy it may do harm, Init that we have never 

 noticed in Sweden, and that is the only thing I can say. We 

 consider the carp a very good fish. 



I think the reason why people have got an antipathy for the 

 carp is that they eat it directly from muddy water, and that of 

 course is a great fault ; for if a carp is taken out of muddy wa- 

 ter and brought directly to the kitchen it of course has a muddy 



