THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 549 
Monroe fishermen found in his catch-of white-fish the previous week 
a fine specimen of German carp which weighed 32 pounds. The pound 
from which the fish was taken was in Lake Erie, about three-fourths of 
a mile out from the mouth of Raisin River. I was unable to learn 
from the fisbermen of this region the exact year when they began to 
catch carp, but all agreed that it was ‘‘in the early eighties.” I was 
told that when the first carp were taken no one about the fish houses 
knew what they were, and they were kept on exhibition in tubs as 
curiosities. It is needless to say that they are no curiosity there now, 
when hundreds of tons are shipped from a single place in the course 
of a year. 
About this same time carp began to be taken by the fishermen in the 
waters of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Early in July, 
1883, a fisherman at Naples, [l., on the Illinois River, caught a mirror 
carp weighing 5 pounds. At Pekin a mirror carp was taken which 
weighed 6 pounds, and at Meredosia, also on the Hlinois River, another, 
with a weight of 8 pounds (Illinois Fish Commission Report for 
1883, pp. 10-12). Carp which had escaped from ponds were also taken 
at or near Hannibal, on the Mississippi, and young carp were taken at 
Quincy. Their numbers have increased to a remarkable extent, until 
now the carp forms the most important fishery product of Illinois. 
The Great Lakes are, on the whole, not well suited to carp. Their 
sandy or rocky bottoms near shore are hard and wave beaten, and 
“support at the best a very scanty vegetation, while they slope off so 
quickly to a considerable depth that the sun has little chance to raise 
the temperature of the shallow water to that degree of warmth most 
favorable for these fish. The western end of Lake Erie and Lake St. 
Clair, especially at its upper end, on the broad delta formed by the 
St. Clair River and known as the St. Clair Flats, are exceptions. In 
the latter place the shallow bays often possess soft, muddy bottoms, 
and are filled with animal and plant life similar to that found in the 
smalier inland lakes. These conditions suit the carp well, and it is 
found there in great abundance. Even better are the conditions in 
Lake Erie, for the whole upper end of the lake is of inconsiderable 
depth, while into it open rivers and bays with hundreds of square 
miles of flat, muddy, reed-grown marshes, which furnish ideal feeding 
and breeding grounds for a fish like the carp. It is probable that the 
fish breed, for the most part at least, in the marshes; but they are 
often fully as abundant in the lake itself. Just what relation they 
have to the two places—to the marshes and to the open lake—has not 
been definitely determined, but the probability of their migration from 
one to the other, with possibly more or less regularity, will be dis- 
cussed later. 
The most extensive marshes connecting with Lake Erie ave those of 
Sandusky Bay and Sandusky River, which opens into it, the marshes 
