THE CARP 
413 
lighted and strong-lunged populace. The string 
of fish caught on that halcyon day by my tall 
brother reached from my shoulders to the ground, 
and for three days the cooks of that countryside 
had Suckers “to burn.” 
This Sucker is perhaps the most widely dis- 
tributed and the most common fish species in- 
habiting the United States. It ranges “from 
Quebec and Massachusetts westward to Montana 
and Colorado, and southward to Missouri and 
Georgia.” (Jordan.) It is one of the best of 
its Family for the table, it is universally eaten, 
and is much superior to any carp the writer has 
ever encountered. In one year (1S99-1900) the 
catch of Suckers in twenty-three states yielded 
655,637 pounds, worth $115,512. 
The Red-Horse , 1 or so-called “Mullet, ’’which 
makes Ohio the centre of its distribution, is an 
abundant and well-known fish in the region west 
of the Alleghenies. It is rather handsome in 
colors, and, although its flesh is coarse and in- 
sipid, it is really an important food fish in its 
region. 
The Buffalo Fishes 2 comprise three species, 
all big and burly, ranging in maximum weight 
from 35 to 50 pounds, and from 2 to 34 feet in 
length. They inhabit the Mississippi and its 
tributaries, and in the spawning season push 
their way even into the larger lakes and flooded 
marshes of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. I 
have seen specimens weighing between 30 and 
40 pounds caught in the Mississippi, at Burlington, 
Iowa, by hand-line fishing between lumber rafts, 
with about as much interest and enthusiasm on 
the part of the fisherman as usually attends the 
capture of a good strawberry bass. One fat and 
fearless “angler” sat on a chair, and baited his 
hook with cheese. 
But let no one underrate the economic im- 
portance of the Buffalo Fish. The catch of 1899; 
chiefly in Illinois, Arkansas, Mississippi and 
Missouri, in the order named, amounted to 14,- 
221,988 pounds, worth $350,026. 
The German Carp 3 was introduced into the 
United States by Mr. R. Poppe in 1872, and in 
1877 by the United States Bureau of Fisheries, 
because of the fact that in Germany it is con- 
1 Mox-os-to'ma au-re-o'lum . 
2 The Common Buffalo Fish is Ic-ti'o-bus cyp-ri- 
nel'la. 
3 Cy-pri'nus car'pi-o. 
sidered a good food fish, and can live and thrive 
in muddy ponds and streams. By thousands of 
prairie dwellers, it was received gladly, especially 
throughout the great plains, where any fish 
with scales is welcomed. The free distribution 
of young Carp led a great many persons to apply 
for them, and plant them in ponds, from which 
they afterward found their way into streams 
that contained fishes infinitely their superior. 
Between the years 1877 and 1885, the streams 
of very nearly the whole Pacific coast of the 
United States were stocked with Carp. At first 
GERMAN SCALED CARP. 
they were placed in ponds, but through “moving 
accident, by flood and field,” they reached the 
rivers, and impregnated them and all their trib- 
utaries. At first they were highly esteemed, 
and sometimes greatly overpraised. It was 
claimed that they were hardy, prolific, harmless 
to other fishes, rapid in growth, persistent under 
adverse conditions, and acceptable on the table. 
Beyond question, under certain conditions nearly 
all these claims are justified by the facts! 
But when the novelty wore off the Carp, the 
cold-blooded critic began to say things. By him 
it was pointed out that Carp stir up the mud in 
all mud-bottomed ponds inhabited by them, and 
keep the water murky. This is quite true; and 
to keep the mud-loving Carp from perpetually 
soiling and disfiguring the once clear and beauti- 
ful waters of the Merced Lakes, in California, first 
sea-lions, and then muskallunge, were introduced 
to exterminate the Carp. 
In California, the Carp is now ranked with the 
introduced catfish, as an unwelcome guest. 
It is claimed that Carp consume to a serious ex- 
tent the wild celery and grasses on which wild 
ducks feed, and the duck supply is diminished 
