CHAPTER IV. 



COUSINS OF THE CARP. 



F all freshwater fish that are worth 

 cultivation for the table the tench 

 gives the least trouble. Almost any 

 pond will suit his contented mind ; 

 like the modest violet, he shuns the 

 " eager eye of day," and the deeper and quieter 

 the pool in which he is placed, the better he 

 is pleased. To him as to his near relation and 

 close ally, the carp, swift rivers are distasteful ; 

 gravelly beds, clear running water, are abomi- 

 nations. A deep quiet pond, with a bottom of 

 mud, in which he can find the larvae upon which 

 he principally subsists, is more to his mind ; or, 

 better still, one of those deep pits from which 

 clay has been dug for bricks. When these pits 

 are filled with water, tench thrive greatly therein ; 

 the quiet which is conducive to meditation 

 E 2 



