162 PHYSOSTOMI. 



occurs : it appeal's only to grow during four months, or from May until August 

 inclusive. 



Respecting their rate of growth it differs in accordance with the water 

 inhabited, as to if such is warm or cold, a river, lake or pond, the supply of food, 

 quality of the soil, and the race of carp. Under favourable circumstances they 

 will attain from 3 to 3£ lb. weight in three years. In warm climates carp have 

 been known to attain from 2f to 41b. in one year, which increase would take two- 

 and-a-half years in colder regions. In 1865 some ponds in Windsor Park were run 

 dry, and the carp in the obelisk pond were of a very similar weight from 4 lb. to 

 6 lb., the head fisherman Wheeler asserted they were at least fifty years old : they 

 had been twice removed within his memory from different ponds, the last time 

 about thirty-five years' previous from a pond near Cumberland Lodge when they 

 weighed about 31b. each. In the Royal stew two brothers and sisters to the 

 foregoing were larger, one turning the scale at 10| lb. (Fish. Mag.). They may 

 become gradually white with age. 



Diseases. — Is subject externally to fungoid growths, especially old carp ; also 

 the same moss-like appearance occasionally attacks young fish which reside in foul 

 or snow water, as well as blindness, epidemic fevers, visceral obstructions due to 

 over-gorging on chickweed, ulcerations of the liver, malignant pustules under the 

 scales termed small-pox by fishermen, carbuncles, and intestinal worms. It appears 

 to be very susceptible to electric influences. On fishing a pond in Dorsetshire a 

 great number of carp were found, each with a frog mounted on it, the hind-legs 

 clinging to the back, the fore-legs fixed in the corner of each eye of the fish, which 

 were thin and greatly wasted (Pennant). Williams (Brit. Angler, 1740) observes, 

 when many carp have been put into a well- watched pond so that they could 

 not have been stolen, at the emptying three or four years subsequently, not a 

 carp would be found. This, he says, is attributed, and in all appearances justly, 

 to their being destroyed by the frogs. The Rev. A. Lloyd (Liverpool Standard., 

 March, 1835) states, that, when engaged with a garden rake in clearing some 

 decayed wood and leaves out of the water of a pond, he brought a live trout, about 

 6^ inches long, to land with a large frog firmly holding it, grasped tightly 

 round the middle. In 1880 it was stated that, during the draining of Count 

 Schaafgotsche's carp ponds at Warmbrunn, it was observed that frogs were 

 clinging to the backs of many of the larger fish, most of which, thus beridden, 

 being blind, the frogs' fore-feet being firmly fixed in the eye sockets of their 

 victims. Hessel observes that once during his absence a number of large carp 

 were fed upon coagulated blood which had commenced to putrefy ; the fish 

 devoured it eagei'ly, became ill, and most of them died in a few days from 

 inflammation of the intestines. Spoilt food should never be given to fish. Frogs 

 appear to be inimical to the eggs and, perhaps, the very young fish, while 

 dabchicks and other water-birds are destructive to the fry. 



As food. — In .some countries, especially in those where eating fish forms a 

 portion of the religious creed of the people, this fish is largely cultivated, while 

 a supply is kept in stews, so that when fast or feast days come round it is readily 

 available ; they were, likewise, very useful in times when the means of carriage 

 was slow. It is not much esteemed in this country owing to its muddy flavour, 

 but this it loses if kept in a stew through which a stream flows. The best tasted 

 forms are those from rivers ; next, such as come from large lakes ; and the most 

 inferior taken direct from muddy ponds. Carp is in season from October until 

 April. The palate, commonly termed "the tongue," is considered a delicacy. 



Its roe is converted into red caviare by Jews in Italy and Eastern Europe as, 

 by their law, they may not eat caviare made of sturgeon, that being a fish destitute 

 of scales. 



To improve their flavour Mr. Tull (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 1754, p. 870) 

 castrated these fish and found that subsequently they grew more rapidly, 

 fattened more readily, and were of a superior flavour. 



Habitat. — This fish, which is indigenous to Persia, China, and contiguous 

 countries, even to Java and other islands in the Malay Archipelago, has been 



