THE TENCH. 227 



tation of one in an old edition of Walton, which as much resem- 

 bles any other fish as a tench. Whilst so occupied I had fixed my 

 rod in the ground, and very shortly my companion drew my 

 attention to it, my float having totally disppeared, when it is al- 

 most needless to say I lost no time in laying hold of the rod, and 

 being more careful on this occasion I eventually captured a noble 

 tench, notwithstanding the difficulties I had to encounter to ac- 

 complish it, on account of the place being so incumbered with 

 weeds: but having at length surmounted every obstacle, I felt 

 fully compensated for all my previous trouble and disappointment, 

 though this, if I remember right, concluded our sport for the 

 day. 



And now having said thus much about myself, I will next make 

 a few remarks upon the description and habits of the tench itself. 



The tench is a stout thick bodied fish : the head proportioned 

 to the body, rather rounded about the eyes, and blunt at the nose ; 

 the muzzle is ornamented with two very small barbules at the 

 corners of the mouth ; the eyes are small and the irides yellow. 

 The dorsal fin, which is placed about the middle of the body, does 

 not extend far down the back but is considerably elevated ; the 

 ventral fins are large and rounded, and the male is easily distin- 

 guishable from the female by the superior size of his ventral fins ; 

 all the fins are of a dark brown colour. When the fish is young 

 the tail is forked, but as in the trout it becomes less so as the fish 

 advances in age, and in old fishes assume a convex form. The 

 scales are remarkably small. One remarkable character of the 

 tench is the thick slime with which its body is coated, resembling 

 that of the eel, and which in like manner will adhere to anything 

 it comes in contact with, yet giving a most resplendent cast to the 

 scales, rendering it as beautiful to look upon as disagreeable to 

 handle. To this slime honest Izaak attributes many medicinal 

 properties ; this fish being, as he says, styled the physician of the 

 whole finny tribe ; and that if a pike be wounded, he has only to 

 rub himself against the slimy sides of the tench to insure a certain 

 cure. Out of gratitude for such services, as well as perhaps to 

 secure them for a future emergency, the pike forbears to devour 

 his physician though never so hungry ; and as I have every reason 

 to suppose the worthy old angler would not have said so if he did 

 not believe it to be true, I offer it to my readers for what it is 

 worth. Tench vary much in colour, according to the nature of the 



