American Fisheries Society. 211 
sity, live in less favored localities, into whose waters the intro- 
duction of the carp would be detrimental, but without wishing 
to seem patronizing or boastful under superior advantages, I 
must insist that the work of investigation and introduction of 
the carp has been one of the best, in its results, of all that has 
been done by one of the greatest food producing factors of the 
world, the United States Fish Commission. 
DISCUSSION. 
President: In several of the former meetings of this So- 
ciety, this carp question has been very prolific of discussion. It 
is now before you. 
Mr. Meehan: This subject has been threshed out a good 
many times, but there is a little I would like to say. I have 
often heard that there are two things that it is idle to discuss, 
one is religion and the other is politics, for the reason that when 
two partisans of either get together, when they are through they 
hold the same position as they did before. I think we ought to 
add carp to that list. There was once a man who had a horse 
of which he thought a great deal and he was very enthusiastic 
about it. He got around among a lot of his friends one day and 
began to describe that horse and tell of its beauties, health, etc., 
and wound up by saying: “This horse is just about the right 
size, 16 feet high!” A friend said: “Surely you mean 16 hands.” 
“Wait a moment. If I said 16 feet high that horse is 16 feet 
high, and it is going to stay 16 feet high.’ There is also an old 
Latin saying, De gustibus non disputandum; about matters of 
taste it is idle to discuss. 
For these reasons it is really, I suppose, idle to have any ex- 
tended discussion on this subject. But I have often wondered 
whether or not, in states where people are very friendly to the 
carp and strong advocates of it, the fish were different and had 
different habits in those states from what they have in my own. 
I must say that I have eaten Illinois carp, and have not found 
them any better than the carp taken from our own waters. 
It has been said on various occasions by advocates of the 
carp, that they do not eat spawn. It has been said for years 
and years, and they have also stated that there has been no 
