Adhesive Eggs. 241 



CHAPTER XXX. 



CARP (Cyprinus carpio). 



The indiscriminate introduction of this fish in Amer- 

 ica was a mistake. It was boomed as a great producer 

 of good food where no good food grew. It was a 

 vegetarian, ''a sheep among fishes," quick growing 

 and prohfic. All of this is true. The fact is that in 

 Germany fish are a luxury and poor people do not eat 

 fresh fish. Before the day of railroads fish that 

 reached Berlin came by stage coach, and to-day the 

 people are prejudiced against all salt-water fish, which 

 they say has "a sea taste." This is hereditary preju- 

 dice and prevents good sea fish from going to Berlin in 

 large quantities. They want their fish alive, and the 

 fishmongers have most of their fish in aquaria. Fancy 

 this for the thousands of tons that come to New York 

 daily ! In the streets of Hamburg can be seen tubs 

 with pike "hecht" (esox), perch (barsch) and carp, all 

 kept alive by women aerating the water. 



We must remember this in order to understand why 

 the Germans consider the carp a good fish ; they know 

 no better. They have "improved" breeds of them as 

 they have of cattle, from the fully scaled fish to those 

 partly naked but with big scales accidentally placed, 

 mirrorkarpfen, to those without a scale, lederkarpfen. 

 The late Herr von Behr, President of the German 

 Fishery Association, induced Prof. Baird to import 

 the carp and eulogized it. Prof. Baird did so, and 

 to-day no fish is so heartily cursed by Americans as 



