THE GERMAN CARP IN THE UNITED STATES, 557 



wouid give, aud as the evidence gathered in this way was rather meager 

 the question is still far from settled. Some of the observations are 

 of much interest, however, and may serve to throw a little light on 

 the subject. 



A large proportion of the carp shipped from northwestern Ohio 

 and southeastern Michigan are taken directly from Lake Erie. Many 

 fishermen are engaged in the business, and they, for practical pur- 

 poses, have had to learn much about the hal)its of the fish which 

 furnishes them their livelihood. Thej' go to the fishing grounds 

 usually in open sail boats, returning to market when they have 

 secured a good haul of fish. This means onl}^ a day's, or possibly two 

 day^', fishing Avhen the carp are "on," })ut under unfavorable condi- 

 tions the boats are often gone a week or more. The fish are taken 

 for the most part b}^ means of seines in shallow waters along shores. 

 The methods of seining will be described more fully later (p. 611). 



It is not surpising, in a body of water the size of Lake Erie, that 

 storms should afl'ect very largely, in fact we might almost sa}" control 

 entirely, the abundance. of carp along the shore. According to the 

 government chart, there is nowhere in the upper end of the lake more 

 than six fathoms of water, while along the southern side water less 

 than three fathoms deep extends to a distance of two to five miles off 

 shore. Strong northwesterly winds are not infrequent during the 

 summer months, and in the winter the principal storms are from the 

 north and northeast. It does not take ver}' high winds to stir such 

 shallow waters to their depths, as is shown b}' the fact that even in 

 moderate storms the water is made roily to a long distance off shore. 

 At such times the carp apparently go out to the deeper waters, 

 and the fisherman say they do not come in again until a day or two 

 after the storm. Unfortunately the only data we have for determining 

 the extent and character of these movements are the occurrences in 

 the shallow shore water; we have little or no data for telling where 

 the fixsh go when they leave. Pound nets in the vicinit}^^ of Niagara 

 Reef, which is seven miles from the nearest land, and which were kept 

 in operation all summer by a Port Clinton firm, did not help to throw 

 an}^ light on this question, since few carp were taken in them at any 

 time. It is possible that during storms some of the carp leave 

 the lake and run up the bays and rivers, and I am not convinced that 

 such is not the case, at least with easterly storms, which raise the 

 water level very appreciably at the western end of the lake. This 

 produces a backward current up the bays and rivers, and evidence will 

 be brought forward to sliow that carp run up the rivers with this back 

 set. But storms from the north do not have this effect, while westerly 

 winds lower the water rather than raise it. So while I think it not 

 unlikely that many of the carp in the lake may enter the bays and 

 rivers when there is an easterly wind, it seems that if this were 



