21 6 TENCH. 



of an unusual size and weight. The most remark- 

 able instance of this in our own country, seems to be 

 that recorded in the second volume of Mr. Daniel's 

 Rural Sports, the account of which runs as follows. 

 " The Tench that has occasioned most animad- 

 version is that which the engraving represents*; 

 the unusual size and form are alike impossible to 

 be accounted for : its bulk perhaps exceeds that of 

 any one ever known to be an inhabitant of the most 

 extensive waters of this country, and the shape, 

 which seems to have accommodated itself to the 

 scanty space allotted for its residence, together 

 stamp it a Lusus Naturae. Its history is that a 

 piece of water, at Thorville Royal, Yorkshire, which 

 had been ordered to be filled up, and wherein wood, 

 rubbish, &c. had been thrown for years, was, in 

 November 1801, directed to be cleared out. Per- 

 sons were accordingly employed, and, almost choak- 

 ed up by weeds and mud, so little water remained, 

 that no person expected to see any fish, except a 

 few Eels, yet nearly two hundred brace of Tench, 

 of all sizes, and as many Perch were found. After 

 the pond was thought to be quite free, under some 

 roots there seemed to be an animal, which was con- 

 jectured to be an Otter; the place was surrounded, 

 and on opening an entrance among the roots, a 

 Tench was found of a most singular form, having 

 literally assumed the shape of the hole, in which he 

 had of course for many years been confined. His 



* See the plate opposite page 264 of the above-mentioned 

 publication, in which a figure, is given of the gigantic specimen 

 described by Mr, Daniel, 



