TENCH. 331 



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. In a 

 pond at Leigh^s Priory, a quantity of Tench were caught, 

 about three pounds'* weight each, of a colour the most clear and 

 beautiful, but when some of them were dressed and brought to 

 table, they smelt and tasted so rankly of a particular weed, 

 that no one could eat them. Some that were conveyed alive 

 and put into other water, soon recovered themselves from this 

 obnoxious taint : an experiment that will always answer in 

 this kind of fish, where it is suspected that there is a ne- 

 cessity for cleansing them ; and the circumstance is recited 

 to show that no decisive judgment can be formed from the 

 external appearance of the Tench, however prepossessing it 

 may appear." 



As the Tench is one of our most useful fresh-water fishes, 

 from the ease with which it may be preserved and its increase 

 promoted, the facility of transportation from its great tena- 

 city of life, and the goodness of its flesh, which is not, 

 however, generally held in the estimation which I think it 

 deserves, as the Tench is also, like the Carp, one of those 

 species first selected as stock for ornamental waters, I ven- 

 ture to recommend that large and fine fish be chosen as 

 breeders, as the most certain mode of obtaining sizeable fish 

 for table in the shortest space of time. Two males to one 

 female, or not less than three to two, should be the propor- 

 tion of the sexes ; and from the pond, which is found by 

 experiment favourable for breeding, the small fish should 

 be in part withdrawn from time to time, and deposited 

 elsewhere to afford more space for all. The male of the 

 Tench is recognised by the large size of the ventral fins, 



