Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1880-05-26

event quito worthy to be entered il
the chronicles OF the monastery, S,
we read Of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
which was captured on Ascension day
1920. And during the Crimean war
a French officer shot n carp in the
Danube which weighed sxty.sever
pounds, one of the scales, which wal
in DR.. Hessel's possession having di
ameter of two and half inches, anC
by the testimony of those same scales
il was at least twenty.iour years old
The normal weight Of the carp, how
ever, is on an avarage of from three tC
three and tbree-fourth pounds; a fish
that has lived two Summers will weigh
two and three-iourths or three and one
fourth pounds the year following. The
"Goldcn Ide" carp which comes from
the Black sea and has one pond Ia
itself here, at the end of two years
weighs three or four pounds. In the
Danube II grows to ten. On the whole,
it is rather an uneventful life that the
carp leads in the Government ponds.
1t is so carefully sheltered and its enc.
mics 80 kept at bay that it has abso-
lutely no excitements in life. In the
native state it would have to look out
for aquatic birds, water.snakes and
musk-rats, cranes and offers, and its
hereditary enemy, the snapping-turtle.
The snapping-turtle has been known
to clear pond of fish and then, led by
its sense of smell, to follow them up
hill and against the stream. But with
the watchiul care and the wire screens
that guard the outlets to the Govern.
mem pond, no carp would have any
trouble in getting his life insured. 1t
takes eight or ten days to hatch the
eggs, which are placed on slides OF
glass in water and kept in a tempera.
ture of 800 or 90o. The young fish
are then put into the Matching pond
before mentioned. When they are to
be removed to another pond, the out.
let to the pond is unlocked with an
iron "key" wire screen placed over
it so that the fish cannot escape, and
the water gradually and carefully
drained. The young are fed while in
the Matching ponds. When pat into
the larger ponds they take care Of
themselves. The carp in the south
pond weigh from one TO two pounds.
In the second pond are 100000 fish
There are three distinct species, the
scale carp, with regular concentrically
arranged scales the MINOR carp, 50
called on account Of the very large
scales, which run along the sides of
the body in three or four rows, the
rest Of the body being bare, and the
leather carp, which has on the back
onl y few scales, or none at all, and
has thick, soft skin, which is like
velvet to the touch. 1t will live in salt
water as well as fresh, and in the
Black sea often attains q weight of
fifteen TO twenty pounds
1t is agood deal Of a cosmopolite, the
carp. 1t haunts all the smaller and
larger rivers Of Europe, and likes also
the Swiss lakes. OF the true carp
pisciculturists have nothing but praise
to speak, but sometimes, as the result
of mesdtlidncc in the carp family,
there result such hybrids as the Car
piS kollarii, a poor and bony fish,
known in Germany as "the poor mans
fish" In Europe, where no carp cul-
turc has been reduced to q science,
the same field is used alternately for q
carp pond and for the raising of grain,
and, as consequence, during the carp
years the fish find the ground full OF
iavorite food.
Let no one mistake the carp for the
buffalo fish. There is q strong resem.
blance, but to confound them is to do
great injustice to those superior quail
ties which have induced the fish COM
mission to introduce the carp into the
United States. The fish are sent out
from these ponds twice year. They
are sent South during the Winter in
April they are sent North, the small
est sent away being from two to seven
inches. Five hundred thousand little
fish will be hatched out this next Sum
mer. Any one who has suitable
, place TO put them can get them on ap.
plication TO the fish commissioner
And oil the young man has to do who
has gone West to grow up with the
country, and is fired by an ambition
, to have o carp pond, is to come dowr
J TO the train with q bucket of water
some fine day and get his carp. 1t vii
! settle down as eontentedly in somC
/ Western pond without name as tho
its ancestors had never swan down
: the castled Rhine or floated in the blue
water of Asiatic seas 1t is one Of tbt
/ attractive and interesting features oI
the city, these carp ponds. Th'
. grounds are so pleasant and well kept
. The solid sod slopes so grecnly dowr
to the water, and in these carly Spring
} days one would rather sit on the gras
} in the sunshine than to breath thu
breath of the galleries and listen Il
Congressional debate, The sun shines
: tho warm, cloudy water is full OF light
} and shadows; there is dandelioi
{ within reach; the flags in the waite
? are taking on new shades ofgreen; nov
: and then there is the flash Of fin
. and shy carp swims away from yol
? "a phantom fish, of whose exact spe
0 cies you are painfully uncertain
, Washington Post.