TENTH ANNUAL MEETING. Il 
Mr. MatHer.—The one to which I referred on the Mississip- 
» pi bottoms had no air hole. It was about three acres in extent, 
and perhaps five feet deep, with two feet of that solid ice from 
shore to shore. 
THE SECRETARY then read a communication by Mr. H. D. Mc- 
Govern, on the Habits and Food of the German Carp : 
It is with pleasure that I place before you some of my ex- 
perience with fishes, more particularly the carp, during the past 
year. Inthe carp I have taken great interest, and have been, I 
am glad to say, successful in developing their growth in our New 
York State waters. My first mention will be of a lot of eighteen- 
months-old carps, thirty-five in number, placed by me in a pond 
prepared for them. The pond was three feet in depth, there 
being a bottom of mud or fine loam of six inches. Some of my 
carp would turn the scales at two anda half pounds previous to 
placing them in the pond, which was constructed for observation 
and fed from springs. In the early part of January I kept an air 
hole open in the ice which had accumulated on the pond, and fed 
the fish by means of a wooden spout, one foot square and four 
feet long, inclosed in alarge sheaf of cat-heads and closed at the 
opening with a wad of salt grass to keep the frosty air from 
entering the tube or shaft. When I wanted to feed my carp I 
would remove the grass wad and drop my food down the aper- 
ture, after which I would obscure the light from the opening by 
throwing a coat over my head, and would then be rewarded by 
seeing all fish within range of the opening at the bottom. By 
this means I could ascertain the fish most relished by the carp. 
And here it is well to say that they disposed of oat meal dough 
and a dough of rye meal mixed with chopped cabbage more 
quickly than any other kind of food given them. My shaft 
worked well until the temperature fell to zero, for then, notwith- 
standing the covering of reeds or cat-heads, it closed up, and I 
was compelled to cut holes in the iceand removeall the particles 
remaining. 
After the opening was cleared I would drop in food, and as 
the fish were not shy they would come to the opening and hover 
