lo 
CARP. 
feet long and tn-enty-fivc pounds weight; it was supposed to be 
about sixty years old. These were tame, and would come to 
the side of the pond to be fed, and swallowed with ease a piece 
of bread half the size of a halfpenny loaf. There is reason to 
believe that these same fish remain to the present time. 
“Ponds should be well supplied with water during the winter, 
and when they are covered with ice, holes should be opened 
every day for the admission of fresh air, through want of 
which Carps frequently perish. It is worthy of notice that 
although the Homans were at great pains and expense in the 
formation of ponds for various sorts of fish, none of the Carp 
family are mentioned as being preserved in them, although some 
of less estimation with us were then cared for; a proof of the 
little estimation in which the Carp and Tench were held by that 
luxurious people. 
“Carp are sometimes fed during the colder season in a cellar; 
the fish is wrapped up in a quantity of wet moss laid on a 
piece of net, and then laid into a purse; but in such a manner, 
however, to admit of the fish breathing; the net is then plunged 
into water, and hung to the ceiling of the cellar. The dipping 
must be at first repeated every three or four hours, hut after- 
wards it need be plunged into the water only once in six or 
seven hours; bread soaked in milk is sometimes given him in 
small quantities; in a short time the fish will bear more, and 
grow fat by this treatment. Many have been kept alive, breathing 
nothing but air in this way, several successive days.” 
It is a portion of the ceconomic history of this fish to record 
the curious fact, that it has been castrated for the purpose of 
rendering it a more delicious morsel. The following is from 
the “History of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris,” as 
copied into the “Gentleman’s Magazine:” — “Sir Hans Sloane 
wrote to Mens. Geofl^roy of this Academy, and F.R.S. of 
London, that a certain stranger came to communicate to him a 
secret he had found out of castrating fish, and fattening them by 
that means. This person, by the great skill he had acquired 
in distinguishing and breeding fish, was now able to make a 
considerable merchandise of them. The singularity of the 
fact excited the curiosity of this learned naturalist, and the 
fish merchant ofiered to give him ocular proof of the same. 
Accordingly he jnocured eight Carrushens, (a kind of small 
