536 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 
but in warmer climates the growth is very much more rapid, and sex- 
ual maturity also is attained at an earlierage. Numerous examples of 
the rapid growth of carp in the warmer waters of this country have 
been reported. Thus in a report of the Illinois Fish Commission 
(Illinois, 1884, p. 10) will be found the following statement by Doctor 
Adams, of Spring Hill Park, Peoria, with regard to some fish received 
by him from the State: 
At less than 2 years of age one of the carp weighed 9} pounds, measuring 22 inches 
in length, a growth of over 1 pound a month from the time it was placed in warm water. 
Doctor Adams had previously had the fish ina spring where the water 
was cold, and they had not done well. Many more statements may be 
found in the early reports of the United States Fish Commission. 
Goode (1888, p. 414) takes from Cholmondeley-Pennell’s ** Fishing” 
the following very good table giving the comparative weights and 
lengths of carp: 
Length. | Weight. || Length. | Weight. | Length. | Weight. 
Inches. | Lbs. Oz. || Inches. | Lbs. Oz. || Inches. | Lbs. O2. 
9 | 72 | 17 3 | 25 | 240) 163 
10 | ial |] 18 3 142 || As al. i 
aT 142 19 4.9) | OT eel OMe 
1}. | ah BES) 20 5 52 || 28 | 14 10 
ial wage aoe 21 | 6 24 | 99 | 15 4 
14 ip ace 22 a ie 30 16 0 
15 ye | 23 Sivas 
16 9 Ms Od gi 3k 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
| 
THE COMMON NAME. 
For the sake of completeness a word as to the name of the carp may 
not be out of place. According to Day (1880-1884, p. 159): 
Carp has been derived from the Greek term ‘‘kuprinos,”’ itself said to be from 
‘‘kupris’’ or ‘‘Cyprus,’? where Aphrodite or Venus was first worshiped, and may 
have been given to this fish in order to symbolize its extraordinary fecundity. 
Holme (1688) gives seizling as yearlings, next a sprole or sprale from 2 years of age, 
terms taken from Gesner’s Swiss names of this fish, they not being called ‘ karpf’’ 
until 4 years old. In the last century we are told (Whole Art of Fishing, 1719) it 
was called the fresh-water foa and queen of rivers. Cerpyn, Welch. De Karper, Dutch. 
La carpe, French. 
In the United States it has come to be generally known as the Ger- 
man carp, because of its importance in Germany and its introduction 
here from that country. Some protest has been made against the use 
of the name, as the carp is not in the strict sense a German or even a 
European fish, but, like the term English sparrow, it is a name that is 
likely to persist. Both of these names are historically appropriate, so 
far as we are concerned, since they serve to indicate the source of the 
first“ lots of each species introduced. In ordinary usage, however, 
simply the word ‘‘carp” is used, and it is so that the fish is known 
commercially. 
aThis is leaving out of consideration the rather doubtful introduction of carp into the Hudson 
River from France by Captain Robinson about 1880 (see p. 540). 
