274 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. In the 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 



