24 TENCH. 



The Tench has much of the shrewdness ascribed to the Carp, 

 as well as a large portion of the animal senses possessed by that 

 fish. It is also sensible to the impressions of cold, and we 

 are informed that in the colder months it will work a hole in 

 the mud to shelter itself, and there lie concealed, perhaps for 

 a longer time than is pleasing to itself, although from the 

 power it possesses of extracting the minutest portions of air 

 from almost exhausted water, it continues to live while other 

 fishes must have perished. We are informed in a quotation 

 from Johnson's "Sportsman's Cyclopaedia," that at Thornville 

 Royal, in Yorkshire, there was a pond that was to have been 

 filled up, for which purpose wood and rubbish had been thrown 

 into it for several years, so that it was almost choked up with 

 mud and weeds. But in November 1801, measures were taken 

 to clear it out, in doing which, as very little water remained, 

 no one expected to see any fish, except perhaps a few eels. 

 Yet, to their surprise there were found nearly two hundred 

 brace of Tenches, of all sizes, and as many Perch. And after 

 the pond was supposed to be quite free, under some roots there 

 seemed to be an animal which was conjectured to be an Otter. 

 The place was then surrounded, when on opening an entrance 

 among the roots a Tench was found, of a most singular form, 

 having literally assumed the shape of the hole in which he had 

 for many years been confined. Its length from fork to eye was 

 two feet nine inches; its circumference, almost to the tail, two 

 feet three inches; the weight eleven pounds nine ounces and 

 a quarter; the colour also was singular, the belly being that 

 of a Char, or vermilion. This fish was examined by many 

 gentlemen, and then carefully placed in the pond; but either 

 from confinement, age, or bulk, it at first merely floated, and at 

 last with difficulty swam gently away. 



This fish is not a native of the western counties of England, 

 nor probably of Ireland or Scotland; but as, like the Carp, 

 it is so retentive of life as to be conveyed easily to distant 

 places, it is found at present in all these districts where situations 

 can be found to suit its habits; and it breeds readily where the 

 soil and water are congenial to it, but indeed there only. It 

 is of use to know that for the fertility of a pond the number 

 of males ought to be double that of females, and it so happens 

 that the sexes of this fish are readily to be distinguished by the 



