THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES. 545 



Bremen to Baltimore, but, owing to a storm of unusual severity to 

 which the vessel was exposed, all were lost on the way. lie immediately 

 returned to Europe, however, where, at Hochst, near Frankfurt, ho pro- 

 cured another lot of iish. These he succeeded in brincrino- in safety to 

 New York, and on May 26, 1877, the}" were placed in ponds in Druid 

 Hill Park, Baltimore. This lot consisted of 345 fish, of which 227 were 

 naked and mirror carp, and 118 were common scale carp. The ponds 

 at Druid Hill Park not beino- wuiiicient for the proper care of the fish, 

 Cong-ress allowed use to be made of the Babcock Lakes in the Monu- 

 ment lot, in the city of Washington, and appropriated the sum of 

 §i5,000 to put these in proper condition. In the following spring 

 these ponds were readv for the reception of the fish, and 65 leather 

 carp and 48 scale carp were transferred to them from the Druid Hill 

 Park ponds. 



The fish that remained in Baltimore, under the care of Mr. T. B. 

 I<erguson, spawned in 1878, hut some gold-fish had entered the pond 

 accidentally, and the carp hybridized with these, so that instead of hav- 

 ing young true carp there were some 2,000 hybrid young. These 

 v/ere destroyed as being worthless. The results were more satisfac- 

 tor}'' in 1879, in which year about 6,000 young were reared. Of these, 

 2,750 were distributed to applicants throughout Maryland, the 

 remainder in other states. In this year the fish in the ponds at 

 Washington spaY>^ned for the first time, and about 6,000 were also 

 reared there. Altogether, in 1879, some 12,265 carp were distributed 

 to over 300 persons in 25 states and territories. Among the recipients 

 were various state commissioners, who redistributed their fish to 

 applicants in their respective states. 



Applications for carp had begun to come in as earl}" as the fall of 

 1876, and the number increased rapidly in the succeeding years. In 

 1877 there w^ere 22 applications, in 1878 144, and in 1879 285, w^hile in 

 18S0 there were nearly 2,000. 



In 1879 new ponds were constructed at Druid Hill Park, and it was 

 in this year, also, that a nev/ importation of carp was made from Ger- 

 many. These were brought over by Dr. O. Finsch (1882), a German 

 naturalist, who obtained 10(> mirror carp from Mr, Eckhai'dt, of Liib- 

 binchen. These weie small fish, a year and a half old and only 6 to 8 

 inches long. Only 23 reached New York alive, although the water 

 was aerated by pumping air into it, and ice Avas used to keep the tem- 

 perature down. The fish were shipped from Hamburg in coal-oil bar- 

 rels, and Dr. Finsch attributes the large mortality to the fact that one 

 of the l^arrels was not clean, and to the warm weather. The survivors 

 arrived in New York on the 6th of May, whence they were shipped to 

 Washington without loss and turned over to Mr. Plessel, the superin- 

 tendent of the Washington ponds. 



F. C. 190-1—35 



