CARP, DA CE AND MINNO IV. 41 g 



Florentine noble once had the hardihood to assert at Leo X. 's table that there 

 was nothing which swam the sea, to his mind, comparable to a good Tuscan 

 Tench ; which declaration, though it convulsed the native Romans assem- 

 bled at the board with laughter at the simplicity of so poor a connoisseur, we 

 should certainly have sided with, and been willing to back an Agnano or 

 Thrasymene 'Tenca' against the whole of the Mediterranean ichthyarchy . " * 



The season for Tench fishing in Germany is from July to October. The 

 waters are ground-baited on the day before with angle-worms or wash- 

 larvae, and the method of angling is the same as for the Carp. 



The Tench is an animal, which, like the owl and the weasel, was 

 in former days looked upon with veneration and even awe, and is an im- 

 portant accession to our fauna if only by reason of the wealth of fable 

 which it brings in its wake. 



*&- 



"The Tench, said Piscator, " is the physician of fishes, and loves ponds 

 better than rivers. 



" In every Tench's head there are two little stones, which foreign phy- 

 sicians make great use of, but is not commended for wholesome meat, 

 though there be very much use made of them for outward applications. 

 Rondeletius says that, at his being at Rome, he saw a great cure done by 

 applying a Tench to the feet of a very sick man. This, he says, was done 

 after an unusual manner, by certain Jews. 



" The Tench is the physician of fishes, for the pike especially ; and 

 that the pike, being either sick or hurt, is cured by the touch of the Tench. 

 And it is observed, that the tyrant pike will not be a wolf to his physi- 

 cian, but forbears to devour him, though he be never so hungry." 



The Minnow or Penk. which Piscator used as a bait in fishing for trout, 

 and the manner of impaling which he so minutely described to his scholar, 

 was Phoxinus laevis Ag., a species widely distributed over Europe — the 

 Vairon of France, the Pfrille of Germany, the Fregarolo of Italy. 



Our Saxon ancestors knew it many hundreds of years ago as the 

 ■"Menawe," and admired its graceful form and many hues. We have four 

 species of Phoxinus in North America ; one in the Tennessee, one in the 

 Upper Missouri, one in the Beaver River. Utah, and one sparingly repre- 

 sented in Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa. We have, besides, numerous 

 forms sufficiently similar to be known by the same name, which, as a 

 matter of fact, is applied indiscriminately to all small cyprinoids, and in- 

 deed to all small fresh-water fishes. " Minnow bait " is used by all live- 



:: ' Prose Halieutics, p. 274. 



