272 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 
To try the experiment practically, I once procured 
some small Tench, and fished with them as live baits for 
a whole day in some excellent Pike water, without 
getting a touch. In the evening I put on a small Carp 
and had a run almost immediately. I also tried some 
Pike in a stock-pond with the same Tench, but they 
would not take them ; and though left in the pond all 
night—one on a hook, and one attached to a fine thread 
—both baits were alive in the morning—some Pike teeth 
marks, however, being visible on one of them. 
Bingley’s explanation of the Pike’s asserted abstinence 
is, that the Tench is so fond of mud as to be constantly 
at the bottom of the water, where the Pike cannot find 
him. Both theories, however, require confirmation. 
The male Tench are distinguished from the females 
by a very curious and marked difference of the ventral 
fins. Inthe females these fins are of the ordinary size 
and shape, but in the males they are much larger and 
more muscular, and present almost the appearance of a 
green concave shell, the concave side being uppermost. 
If the Tench is thus remarkable by its characteristics 
and traditions, the Carp is certainly no less so. The 
great age to which it is believed to attain, and the 
cunning and sagacity that has procured it the cognomen 
of the “Water Fox” have been frequently made the 
subject of comment by writers on angling. Indeed there 
are some Carp now in the lakes belonging to the 
Palace at Fontainbleau which may be fairly said to have 
