THE TENCH. 233 



bottom, 1 have so shotted my line that my float shall stand erect 

 when all the shots are off the bottom, but I place one lower than 

 the rest which I manage shall touch ground, so that my float only 

 stands half erect, yet becomes bolt upright the moment a fish 

 dares to meddle with the bait, and sinks under water the moment 

 the rogue walks off with it. It is better to give a tench a little 

 time when he bites in order that he may get the bait well into 

 his mouth, when, being a leather mouthed fish, the hold will be 

 sure not to give way. 



The bait I have almost invariably used in this kind of fishing 

 has been a moderate sized red worm well scoured, or a large 

 brandling ; but these fish will bite at the cadis, gentles, and grubs 

 of all kinds, the brood of wasps, grasshoppers, small slugs, and 

 at every kind of paste. According to Walton a tench inclines 

 very much to any paste in which tar is mixed, and also to a paste 

 made of brown bread and honey ; but as I have never tried any 

 of these, I will venture no opinion upon their respective 

 merits. 



In addition to the tench being the physician of fishes, Walton 

 also mentions that, " in every tench's head are two little stones 

 which foreign physicians make great use of ;" whilst Rondeletius 

 says " that at his being at Rome he saw a great cure done by ap- 

 plying a tench to the feet of a very sick man." This he says was 

 done after an unusual manner by certain Jews. But Rondeletius 

 lived in a far more gullible age than now ; in times indeed when 

 impostures were daily allowed to pass current for miracles, and 

 when learned men could be induced to entertain the idea that hares 

 changed sexes every year, or that the barnacles bred on old floating 

 timber would turn to geese; though it seems that no lesser per- 

 sons than Camden, Dr. Bartas, Lobel, and Gerard expressed this 

 opinion ; whilst it appears that the assertion of Dr. Mer, Casau- 

 bon, and Gasper Peucerus, that there were a people that once a 

 year turned to wolves, partly in shape and partly in condition, ob- 

 tained full credit among many learned men. In the present age 

 men are inclined to run rather into a contrary extreme : doubting 

 every theory they have not the wit to comprehend, as well as the 

 existence of every fact they themselves have never before seen or 

 heard of; yet I must confess the tench's medicinal virtues are sup- 

 ported by evidence far too weak for us to suppose that the facts 

 are really so ; all I shall therefore advocate on his behalf is the 



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