CARP AND TENCH. 271 
to scales, it would be hard to hit upon two fish more 
dissimilar, 
The Carp has the largest scaling of any of the fish 
composing the group of which it is the type, whilst the 
scales of the Tench are amongst the smallest, if not 
actually the most minute of the whole family; and 
whilst the former fish makes one of the very best Pike 
live baits that I am acquainted with, the latter, it is 
affirmed, exerts upon that usually carnivorous gourmand 
an effect absolutely repellent. Of the truth of this fact, 
as a fact, there seems to be no reason to doubt, though 
we are not, of course, bound to put implicit faith in the 
various theories by which it has at different times been 
explained. Of these the most universally accepted 
amongst ancient, and even by some modern authors, 
appears to be that the Tench is in some way the 
physician of the water, possessing in the thick slime 
with which he is covered a natural balsam for the cure 
of himself and others. Camden, in his “ Britannica,” 
says that he has seen the bellies of Pike, which have been 
rent open, have their gaping wounds presently closed by 
the touch of the Tench, and by his glutinous slime 
perfectly healed up. The Pike, in return, it is asserted, 
refuses to molest his physician, even when most pressed 
by hunger—a statement in the accuracy of which 
Oppian, Walton, Holingshed, Bowlker, Salter, Wil- 
liamson, Hofland, and Fitzgibbon, all acknowledge to 
more or less faith. 
