CARP AND TENCH. 2Jl 



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. 



