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. I 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 Vaniere 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 ; 
