CARP-GOSSIP. 159 



the company by saying "Why should we all be 

 disturbed by this ridiculous quarrel? Let the dis- 

 putants go to Judge Dolphin, he is a wise and just 

 fish, and will soon decide the question." Accordingly 

 the carp and grayling went to the dolphin, and, having 

 laid the case before him, he said " My children, you 

 place me in a very awkward position. 1 am bound 

 to do you justice, but how can I, having never seen 

 either of you before ? While you have been residing 

 in fresh waters, I have all my life been rolling about 

 in the restless waves of the ocean. Consequently, I 

 cannot give a conscientious opinion as to which is the 

 best fish, without I first taste you." So the dolphin 

 incontinently snapped up the carp and grayling, and 

 swallowing them down his gullet, said : 



" No one ought himself to commend 

 Above all others, lest he offend." 



The carp is the only one of our fresh-water fishes 

 that has attained to mythical honours. Its extreme 

 cunning, so well characterised in the preceding quota- 

 tions, and its peculiar colour, may have contributed 

 to this elevation. Pope, in his Windsor Forest, 

 speaks of 



" The yellow carp in scales bedropped with gold. " 

 And Vauiere gives the myth connected with that 

 peculiar feature in the following lines : 



" The carp, which in the Italian seas was bred, 

 With shining scraps of yellow gold is fed ; 



