14 
CAKP. 
passes upward. A series of small bones has been discovered 
to proceed from the true organ of hearing downward, by 
which it has been supposed that the elasticity of air in this 
bladder may assist in perception of particular sounds. 
The Carp is exceedingly prolific, and the early growth of the 
young is rapid; but although capable of producing spawn in 
the third year, the magnitude this fish is capable of reaching 
is not attained for several years beyond this. On the continent 
of Europe it has been seen of the length of five or six feet, 
but nothing like this has been witnessed in Britain. Individuals 
which have been in possession of both milts and roe have been 
met with more frequently in this species than in any other 
fish; and there are individuals which are absolutely neutral, or 
destitute both of milt and roe. Nor is this the only remarkable 
irregularity of structure; for I am informed by Edmund T. 
Higgins, Esq., who has carefully studied these objects in various 
orders of fishes, that in the Carp the otolithes (bones of the 
ear) are not always alike on both sides; in fact that in some 
instances they are altogether wanting on one side. The position 
of these bones is also different from what is the case in other 
fishes; so that the bone termed the malleus is at a distance 
from another called incus, and it is serrated all round the 
border. These things are worthy of notice, since they have 
not hitherto been recorded. 
That the Carp was known to the ancient Greeks, however 
little regarded, a^jpears from Aristotle, who particularly mentions 
the fleshy pad in its palate, and the manner of its breeding, of 
which he says, “Pond and river fish begin to produce usually 
when five months old; (but knowing little of Trout, and nothing 
of the Salmon, he is partially in error when he adds, ‘they 
all produce their spawn at the beginning of summer.’) The 
females of these kinds never shed all their spawn nor the 
males their milt at once; but both sexes are always found 
to contain a portion of these parts. The Carp produces five 
or six times a year, under the influence of the stars.” — B. 6. 
The Carp was in^-roduced into the south of Sweden in the 
year 1560; and, together with the Tench, Dace, Roach, and 
Goldfish, it has been conveyed into the Colony of Victoifia, in 
Australia, by the Acclimation Society of that country; where 
they are likely to live and thrive. 
