CAROUGE, Ith'r7i7zle. A town of Switzer land, situated about one mile south of Geneva, on the left hank of the Arve (Map: Switzerland, A 2). It is regularly built, is surrounded by villas, orchards, and meadows, and has a hand some church. There are manufactures of thread, clay pipes, leather, watches, and pottery, as well as of machinery and ironwork. A bridge across the Arve connects the town with Geneva. In 1790 the Ring of Sardinia, as ruler of Savoy, tried to make Carouge the industrial rival of Geneva, but failed. Population, in 1900, 7400.
CARP (Ger. Earpfe, OHG. eharpho, feel. karfi, AVelsh carp, Russ. karpg, probably- bor rowed from the Germanic). A fresh-water fish (('yprinus carpio), typical of the family Cypri 'lithe (q.v.), now acclimated in all parts of the world. The body is robust, compressed, and cov ered with large scales; head naked; mouth rather small, toothless, with fleshy lips and four well developed barbels. The dorsal fin is quite long, the anal much shorter. The color is a uniform dark brown above, growing quite light on the ventral side. The carp may attain a weight of 40 to 50 pounds, but the usual weight is much less than this. It thrives best in lakes and ponds, and in streams seeks the quiet, sluggish waters, where it feeds largely on vegetable mat hut will also eat insect-larvce, worms, etc. The carp may reach an age of 200 years. It spawns about June; the eggs, which are small, transparent, and number several hundred thou sand, are fastened to aquatic weeds, where they will endure great vicissitudes of weather and temperature. During the winter months it. hiber nates and does not take food. So exceedingly hardy is it. that it may be kept alive even for days in moist moss if properly fed, and conse quently may be transported great distances with facility.
The original home of the carp was southeastern Asia, where it has been tamed and cultivated since the earliest times by the Chinese, and where it is still found wild. It was introduced into northern Europe several centuries ago, and trans planted about the Fourteenth Century to Great Britain, under the name of German carp. From Europe it has been brought casually to North America, and about 1970 a strong effort was made to plant it extensively in the still waters of the United States: this succeeded widely, but the extreme prolificacy of the fish, quickly over crowding small ponds, and the comparative coarseness of its flesh, which is readily tainted by foul waters, have prevented it finding as great favor with the American public as in German Europe. There are three varieties of earp: (1) the scale-earp, which. excepting the head, is entirely covered with scales; (2) the mirror carp (Spiegclka•pfe of the Germans), which has three to four rows of very large scales along the sides, the rest of the body remaining bare; (3) the leather-earp (Lcdcr•arpfc), in which the scales are entirely wanting. All these are equally good as food. although a preference ,s often shown for the sealed variety. To the angler, the carp is not a very valuable fish. as he is by no means a free biter. Several other fishes are called carps, notably the European congener called Clan•inn (q.v.), and the closely allied gold fish ; also some entirely different ones, as the sea bream and the American earp-suckers. See Plate of CtaPs ‘Xl) FA'ROPEAN ALLIES.