54 DRITISH SPORTING FISHES. 
was done by placing them in a box or cage, which 
was deposited in a stream, the fish thereby gaining 
in flavour. Culture has done much to improve 
the carp, and American pisciculturists have now 
so far succeeded as to breed a scaleless variety. 
Looking to the fish as a source of food supply, 
this is an important step in advance, and the 
result has been brought about mainly by careful 
selection. Although, as already stated, carp are 
found for the most part in ponds, yet they 
inhabit rivers, though they avoid all currents, 
and seek silted or muddy bottoms. In such case 
they are not so prolific as when found in ponds, 
and as well as producing fewer eggs, they spawn 
less frequently. To prove how prolific, under 
favourable circumstances, carp really are, it may 
be mentioned that the roe of a fish 21 Ibs. in 
weight contained 1,310,750 eggs, and another of 
164 Ibs. 2,059,750 eggs. There is one matter 
anent the breeding of this species which is not 
quite clear. Female fish have sometimes three or 
four successive layers of eggs, which they would 
seem to shed, but at remarkably short intervals. 
If the weather is warm, spawning begins in April, 
but more commonly in May; even with fish in 
the same haunts, and under precisely like con- 
ditions, spawning sometimes continues for three 
or four months. ‘Temperature affects carp more 
