56 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



and at Elstree Reservoir, one year when the 

 water was very low, a number of tench of three 

 and four pounds each were caught. Mr. Manley 

 mentions one glorious " take " of tench in the 

 Avon a few miles above Christchurch,at which he 

 assisted. With the help of nets, five tench were 

 taken averaging over five pounds each, the 

 largest weighing close upon six pounds. Such 

 splendid tench, however, are rare, and most 

 anglers for this wary fish esteem themselves 

 lucky if a day's sport produces several two- 

 pounders. 



Yet in water that suits them tench are mar- 

 vellously prolific ; in a fish of four pounds' 

 weight Bloch counted nearly three hundred 

 thousand ova. They spawn about the middle 

 of June, or, as Willoughby remarks, " when the 

 wheat is in blossom." The development of 

 the grains of spawn is extraordinarily rapid. In 

 Muller's Archives for 1836 M. Rusconi ob- 

 served : 



" Soon after the application of the milt the ovum loses 

 its spherical form, and swells out into the form of a pear, 

 and at the point where the swelling begins it is surrounded 



