AND OF STILL WATERS. 55 



Essex, " which was so thick with weeds that the 

 flew-nets could hardly be sunk through them, 

 and where the mud was intolerably foetid, and 

 had dyed the fish of its own colour, which was 

 that of ink, yet no tench could be better grown 

 or of a sweeter flavour ; many were taken that 

 weighed nine and some ten pounds the brace." 

 It would have been simpler to have given the 

 weight of any individual fish, as the above 

 method of reckoning is apt to remind the 

 reader of the Yankee's boast about the mos- 

 quitoes of his native land " Many of them 

 would weigh a pound ! " Tench, however, do 

 attain a fine size, though not so great a one as 

 the carp, whom, however, they surpass in beauty 

 of colour and excellence of meat. Tench 

 seldom attain a greater weight in this country 

 than seven or eight pounds, though in Italy they 

 sometimes grow to twenty pounds. The usual 

 weight of tench in small ponds is from two to 

 three pounds, and this average is attained only 

 under favourable circumstances as regards 

 water, numbers, and feeding. In 1874 a tench 

 was taken at Sonning that weighed five pounds, 



