THE TENCH. 229 



fior can we expect more virtue among fishes, or that they would 

 exhibit more charity towards their imprisoned doctor, however 

 skilfully he may have physicked them, than mankind would have 

 done under similar circumstances ? This enormous tench was 

 afterwards restored to liberty, and allowed to roam at large in an 

 open pond, and twelve months afterwards, when the account was 

 written, was perfectly well. 



The spawning time of tench is the month of June, and accor- 

 ding to Willoughby at the time the wheat is in blossom. The 

 eggs like those of the carp are deposited in weeds or flags ; and 

 until the spawn is vivified, every precaution should be taken that 

 no ducks or other water foul are allowed to visit the waters, as 

 they will devour the greater part if not the whole, if permitted to 

 come near it. And it may be as well at the same time to keep a 

 look out that no suspicious characters approach the pond side ; for 

 whilst the spawning process is going on, the parties engaged in it 

 are so intent upon the important business they are then engaged 

 in, that they may easily be dipped out with a landing net, or 

 struck with a barbed spike at the end of a stick, or noosed with 

 a wire like a pike. As the female is generally during the time of 

 spawning attended by three males, when a pond is intended to be 

 stocked with these fishes, it would be the better plan to put in 

 that number of males to a female, and by selecting the largest fish 

 you can procure, you will be the more likely to insure a breed of 

 the finest fish in the shortest space of time. 



As to the waters best adapted for tench, Walton observes that 

 they love ponds better than rivers, and pits than either : and this 

 opinion has been fully corroborated by all who are conversant on 

 the subject. Yet in some large waters they are found to thrive 

 exceedingly, particularly in the broads in Norfolk, but they rarely 

 do well in rivers. Those best adapted to them are a slow sluggish 

 streams, having a muddy bottom ; and where in the quieter parts 

 the surface is coated with the plant of the water lily. Mr. Yar- 

 rell mentions that the tench appears to decline in proportion as we 

 advance Northward, and although a few may be said to exist in 

 some of the preserved waters in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, 

 they nowhere thrive or breed in any abundance. In the South 

 of England, tench are generally found to do well in most waters 

 that are not too hard, or tainted with mineral springs. A peaty 

 soil seems well adapted to them ; and they are often found to sue- 



