THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 537 
THE CARP IN EUROPE. 
The little that is known of the early history of the carp is given, 
with shght variation, in nearly all works which treat of the fish, and 
as I have nothing to add I shall here give merely a brief summary. 
There seems to be a general agreement that carp were indigenous to 
the temperate portions of Asia; and they had probably spread into 
southeastern Europe before the Christian era. Aristotle speaks of it 
as *‘a river fish without a tongue, but having a fleshy roof to its 
mouth; as producing eggs five or six times a year, especially under 
the influence of the stars; as having eggs about the size of millet seed; 
and as being occasionally struck by the dog-star when swimming near 
the surface” (Houghton, 1879, p.,15). It is also mentioned by a num- 
ber of other writers of early times and is spoken of as an excellent 
article of food. 
The carp probably came into western Europe by easy stages. Hes- 
sel states that its culture in Austria can be traced back as far as the 
year 1227, and it 1s claimed to have been introduced into Germany and 
France two or three decades later (1258). The extensive ponds at 
Wittingau, in Bohemia, were begun as early as 1367. Carp culture 
was carried on especially in connection with monasteries and on a 
number of large estates, and has come to be an important commercial 
industry, especiaily in Austria-Hungary and Prussia. It is said that 
-an acre of water suitable for carp culture will rent for as much as an 
acre of land. The fish’s range has gradually extended in Europe, 
until now it is found over practically the whole of the continent from 
Italy to Sweden and Norway, and from France and the British Isles 
to Russia and the boundaries of eastern Siberia. It does not do so 
well, however, and is little cultivated, in the more northern portions 
of its range, such as Scotland, Sweaen, Norway, Finland, ete. 
Peyrer (1876, p. 615) states that in Austria the ‘‘ Danube carp” 
was once a favorite and cheap food of the common people, but that 
its numbers have become greatly decreased. A writer (Anonymous, 
1880) whose paper has been translated in the Report of the United 
States Fish Commission for 1878, and Veckenstedt (1880) have given 
good descriptions of the carp fisheries of the Peitz Lakes in Nether 
Lusatia, some 60 to 80 miles to the southeast of Berlin. There are 
some 76 of these lakes, which are a royal domain and are rented to a 
private individual at an annual return equivalent to $12,870. The 
ponds are drawn in October, and this is the occasion for a general 
holiday in the region. The drawing off of the water is begun three 
weeks beforehand, and when the fish have congregated in the deeper 
places they are taken by means of large drag-nets, or seines, capable of 
holding 5,000 pounds of fish. At Cottbus, a near-by city, meets the 
so-called ** Carp Exchange,” composed of buyers from the large firms 
in Halle, Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Posen, Berlin, etc. The 
