TENCH. 329 



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

 from which clay for bricks has been dug 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"^ prizes, it is stated, that in 

 some ponds belonging to Mr. Fergusson of Pitfour, in 

 Aberdeenshire, 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. 



