TENCH. 329 



not appear to be so prolific as in ponds. In deep pits, 

 from which clay for bricks has been diuj- out, Tench are 

 often abundant ; broad shallow waters on muddy bottoms 

 frequently produce great quantities ; some very extensive 

 tracts of water a few miles north of Yarmouth in Nor- 

 folk, not far inland from a point called Winterton Ness, 

 abound with Tench, which, when removed to stews, feed and 

 thrive on a mixture of greaves and meal till fit for table : 

 their flesh is nutritious and of good flavour. 



The Tench appears to decline in numbers in proportion 

 as we proceed northward. In a communication from Car- 

 lisle on the subject of fish, obligingly supplied to me by 

 J. C. Heysham, Esq. that gentleman states that the Tench 

 is only now and then taken in the Eden; and occasionally 

 he has known of one being caught in the Solway Frith. 

 A few Tench exist^ in preserved waters in the neighbourhood 

 of Edinburgh, but they are not very prolific. In a paper 

 by Mr. Whyte, land-surveyor at Mintlaw, which obtained 

 one of the Highland Society's prizes, it is stated, that in 

 some ponds belonging to Mr. Fergusson of Pitfour, in 

 Aberdeen shire, the Tench thrives well ; and the Carp, al- 

 though not very prolific, breeds. This is owing, it is said, 

 to a particular softness in the quality of the water where 

 these fish exist ; in fact, it is allowed by Mr. Whyte, in 

 allusion to the Carp-ponds, that they are wholly kept up 

 by rain-water, a very different fluid from that produced by 

 the hard springs of the country.* 



In Ireland the Tench is noticed as existing in ponds in 

 the counties of Cork, Dublin, and Kilkenny. 



Tench are exceedingly tenacious of life ; and experiments 

 have shown that a Tench is able to breathe when the quan- 

 tity of oxygen is reduced to the five-thousandth part of the 

 bulk of the water : ordinary river water generally containing 



* The Art of Angling as practised in Scotland, p. 99. 



