in ichthyology, the English name of a species of cyprinus. See CYPRINUS; also Carp-Fishing.

The carp is the most valuable of all kinds of fish for stocking of ponds. It is very quick in its growth, and brings forth the spawn three times a year, so that the increase is very great. The female does not begin to breed till eight or nine years old; so that in breeding-ponds a supply must be kept of carp of that age. The best judges allow, that, in stocking a breeding-pond, four males should be allowed to twelve females. The usual growth of a carp is two or three inches in length in a year; but, in ponds which receive the fattening of common sewers, they have been known to grow from five inches to 18 in one year. A feeding-pond of one acre extent will very well feed 300 carp of three years old, 300 of two years, and 400 of one year old. Carp delight greatly in ponds that have marley sides; they love also clay-ponds well sheltered from the winds, and grown with weeds and long grass at the edges, which they feed on in the hot months. Carp and tench thrive very fast in ponds and rivers near the sea, where the water is a little brackish; but they are not so well tasted as those which live in fresh water. Grains, blood, chickens-guts, and the like, may at times be thrown into carp-ponds, to help to fatten the fish. To make them grow large and fat, the growth of grass under the water should by all means possible be encouraged. For this purpose, as the water decreases in the summer, the sides of the pond left naked and dry should be well raked with an iron rake, to destroy all the weeds, and cut up the surface of the earth: hay-feed should then be sown plentifully in these places; and more ground prepared in the same manner, as the water falls more and more away. By this means there will be a fine and plentiful growth of young grass along the sides of the pond to the water's edge; and when the rains fill up the pond again, this will be all buried under the water, and will make a feeding-place for the fish, where they will come early in the morning, and will fatten greatly upon what they find there.

CARPÆA, a kind of dance anciently in use among the Athenians and Magnesians, performed by two persons, the one acting a labourer, the other a robber. The labourer, laying by his arms, goes to ploughing and sowing, still looking warily about him as if afraid of being surprized: the robber at length appears; and the labourer, quitting his plough, betakes himself to his arms, and fights in defence of his oxen. The whole was performed to the sound of flutes, and in cadence. Sometimes the robber was overcome, and sometimes the labourer; the victor's reward being the oxen and plough. The design of the exercise was to teach and accustom the peasants to defend themselves against the attacks of ruffians.