2s6 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



attached to a fine thread— both baits were alive in the morning, 

 some pike teeth marks, however, being visible upon the hooked 

 fish. 



These facts I mention, however, for what they may be worth, 

 without expressing any opinion as to the truth or otherwise of 

 the theories before alluded to. 



The notion is at least a poetical one, and as such in this 

 utilitarian age deseirves to be encouraged. We are all getting 

 so confoundedly prosaic and matter of fact that the introduction 

 of a little idealism can but be an improvement. It would be 

 quite refreshing to encounter a few angling troubadours on 

 Marlow Bridge, or fishermen-serenaders, in gondolas d la 

 Venice, outside Pope's Villa at Twickenham. 



Anyhow, the hypothetical relationship between pike and 

 tench has been related in verse as well as in prose : — 



The pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain. 

 With ravenous waste devours his fellow train : 

 Yet, howsoe'er by raging famine pined, 

 The tench he spares — a medicinal kind ; 

 For when by wounds distrest or sore disease, 

 He courts the salutai-y fish for ease. 

 Close to his scales the kind physician glides 

 And sweats a healing balsam from his sides. 



So much for the poetical explanation. A more prosaic one 

 is given by Bingley, who suggests that, as the tench is so fond 

 of mud as to be constantly at the bottom of the water, where 

 the pike cannot find him, the self-denial of the latter may be 

 attributed to more natural causes. 



However, as I said before, whether true or false, I am for 

 the more poetical solution of the vexaia qucBStio. 



The flesh of the tench is white and firm and not unnutritious, 

 though, like the eel, it would appear to be palatable in a pre- 

 cisely inverse ratio to the cleanliness of its abode, improving in 

 gustatory attractions as it approaches more nearly in colour 

 and diet the composition of its habitual mud. Thus, ' tench 



