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2

of Your Department to introduce
the Carp into Canadian waters with
the view to obtain commercial benefits
from the venture - lakes, and large
rivers, that maintain a very high
temperature, and produce an extensive
growth of vegetable matter should be
[located?]; as they are a fish (unlike
[?] all other natives of Northern
latitudes,) that thrive in warm,
[Sortidy?] climates, or where the
waters becomes almost too warm
in summer for the trout, or salmon
[family?] to live in. There may be
[some?] lakes within my knowledge
such as Rice Lake, Scugog Lake,
and no doubt many others which
might be well adapted for the
introduction of German Carp. But
whilst they would no doubt prosper
[?] in such waters, it would not
follow that, from a commercial
view, in fact from any other standpoint
they pay would be a satisfactory fish
to introduce for the following reasons
Such waters are generally speaking
throughout Canada, the home of the
Pike, Bass, Maskinonge and other
like families of fish which, as a rule
are taken by [?] other hook

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54

and line devices, and sometimes
they are permitted to be taken by gill
nets, and seines; [?] the information
I have been able to obtain regarding
Carp, they do not take troll or hook
and line, nor can they be easily captured
with seines, or nets in deep, or muddy
waters (such as would be the case in
the lakes referred to) as they always
feed at the bottom, and hide, in
escape at approach of danger, by
borrowing in the mud: where carp
are most largely reared as in Germany
by the Government, or by individuals,
large areas of ground, or ponds are
formed and so contrived that
when filled with water, and a
crop of crap has grown in them
sufficiently fit for marketable pur-
poses, the water is drawn off
to a very low stage, and the fish are
then easily taken out of the mud, or
pond sluices into which they
are led by the reduced flow of
water.—(vide my letter of 18 Sep last)

In this view of the measures adop-
ted in other countries to make Carp
a marketable, and commercial
fish, it is doubtful indeed whether
Carp would be found to be a profitable