PLATE CX. 
five feet in length. Carps of this enormons size must he very scarce 
°n the continent however, since Bloch records one of thirty-two 
pounds weight, taken in the domains of the Comte de Schulen- 
bourgh, in Saxony, as a very extraordinary example, and tells us of 
another taken at Dertz, upon the frontiers of Pomerania, of thirty- 
e, ght pounds weight, which from its uncommon magnitude was 
thought worthy of being presented to the King. It is chiefly in 
Austria, Prussia and Poland that the Carp is cultivated with success, 
an d where it forms a considerable article of commerce, the traders 
Purchasing the fish of the nobility, who derive a great revenue from 
the produce of their ponds. 
The Carp is extremely tenacious of life, and highly prolific ; they 
are reported to attain to the vast age of one hundred and fifty or 
tvv ° hundred years; that its term of life exceeds a century we have 
a number of well authenticated instances. BufFon says, he has seen 
r> . J 
ar ps in the fosses of Pont Chartrain, which were known to be one 
hundred and fifty years old; and many of those introduced into the 
Ponds at Versailles in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth were in 
h e, ng a short time before the revolution. 
* ts pawning season is in June, or, when the spring is forward, 
month earlier ; they breed in the usual manner, and deposit their 
Sgs among the herbage : one female is commonly observed to be 
lc companied by three males. These fish live chiefly on aquatic 
ns ^cts, worms, and plants, and during the spawning time swim in 
tr °ops. 
The dorsal fin in the specimen selected for our figure contains 
e nty-three rays, pectoral fin ten, ventral seven, anal seven, and 
1 c l ail nineteen. 
