1889. J 
169 
[Gar man. 
kindly made inquiries ; among the answers to which, as it seems to 
me, we find a reasonable clew to the origin of this carp. The fol" 
lowing is his reply to my questions : — - 
Ayer , Mass., Dec. 31, 1888. 
Dear Sir 
I received your letter of the nineteenth instant in due 
time and have since been trying to find something reliable or, at least, 
plausible to say to you regarding the origin of what we called the “ mon- 
ster fish. ” There were several stories which when followed out did not 
give much satisfaction. Mr. George Kilburn, whose father used to own 
the pond where the fish was shot, says that about fifteen years ago, a Mr. 
Pierce came to the mills with a few little fish that he called black bass and put 
them in the pond. I do not know that there has been a black bass caught 
or seen there since. The man who owns the pond and shot the fish says that 
about eight years ago he put what he had left of some live bait, shiners, 
suckers, and other little fish, into the pond. He thinks it might have been one 
of them. I do not see much to depend on in that. There have been no ponds 
stocked with any fish in Shirley that I know of. This particular pond is 
on the Mulpus brook which has its origin in a spring in the northeast part of 
Lunenburg. There were two of the large ponds in that town stocked with 
black bass some fifteen years ago, but I see no way they could have got into 
the Mulpus. I have to-day heard a more plausible story direct from the man 
who planted the fishes. Mr. Herbert Mead who lives in the northern part of 
Lunenburg has a small pond where he cuts ice in winter. It discharges 
into the Mulpus, when it overflows, but gets pretty dry in summer. About 
eight years ago he put into it twenty German carp that were nearly four 
inches in length. In about six months the pond was almost dry, and in 
bailing it out only four of the carp were found. These had grown to be a 
foot in length, which is growing pretty fast. Mr. Mead thinks the fish was 
one that escaped from his pond during a freshet, and, if it was a carp, it 
may be so. I never have seen a carp, or any fish like this. It is fully five 
miles from his pond to where the fish was found, and she would have to 
come through several small mill ponds. That, however, would be easy 
enough in high water. Altogether this seems as likely to indicate the 
source as anything I have heard. The fish had been seen several times in 
the pond where it was found, during the past two years. This pond is not 
large, perhaps five or six acres in all, but there is a deep pocket in it near 
the dam, which has not been drawn ofi" in thirty years I am sure. I 
judged it to be an old fish from its size, and think it was hardly one-third cov- 
ered with scales ; there were some along the back bone, and a strip on the 
sides, none on the belly, which was a dark yellowish green, not very hand- 
some. It had been seen apparently feeding from the bottom as near shore 
as it could get. I have written all I could get hold of that was likely to 
interest you or help to establish the identity of the fish. 
Respectfully yours, 
Edwin L. White. 
