590 FISHES. 



was transported to Germany and Sweden, and the year 1614 

 is assigned as the date of its first introduction into England. 

 It delights in tranquil waters, preferring such as have a 

 muddy bottom, and the surface partially shaded with plants. 

 Its food consists of the larvae of aquatic insects, minute 

 testacea, worms, and the tender blades and shoots of plants. 

 The leaves of lettuce, and other succulent plants of a similar 

 kind, are said to be particularly agreeable to them, and to 

 fatten them sooner than any other food. Although the Carp 

 eats with great voracity when its supply of aliment is 

 abundant, it can subsist for an astonishing length of time 

 without nourishment. In the winter, when the Carps as- 

 semble in great numbers, and bury themselves among the 

 mud and the roots of plants, they often remain for many 

 months without eating. They can also be preserved alive 

 for a considerable length of time out of the water, especially 

 if care be taken to moisten them occasionally as they become 

 dry. Advantage is often taken of this circumstance to trans- 

 port them alive, by packing them among damp herbage or 

 damp linen ; and the operation is said to be unattended with 

 any risk to the animal, especially if the precaution be taken 

 to put a piece of bread in its mouth steeped in brandy ! 



The fecundity of these fishes is very great, and their 

 numbers consequently would soon become excessive but for 

 the many enemies by which their spawn is destroyed. ISTo 

 fewer than 700,000 eggs have been found in the ovaries of a 

 single Carp, and that, too, by no means an individual of the 

 largest size. Their growth is very rapid, more so perhaps 

 than that of any other Freshwater fish, and the size which 

 they sometimes attain is very considerable. In certain lakes 

 in Germany individuals are occasionally taken weighing 

 thirty or forty pounds; and Pallas relates that they occur 

 in the Volga five feet in length, and even of greater weight 

 than the examples just alluded to. The largest of which we 



