THE CAKP FAMILY. 129 



the water — river- water ordinarily containing about one part 

 of oxygen in a hundred. 



In this country the Tench is, like the Grayling, a some- 

 what local fish, preferring ponds to rivers, and of the latter 

 those which are slow and deep and which cut their channel 

 through strata of marl or loam ; in these situations, how- 

 ever, it never breeds so fast as in ponds, nor does it usually 

 attain the same size. Pits from which brick-clay has been 

 dug often abound with Tench ; and a bucketful have been 

 known to be taken out of a hole of this sort not wider than 

 a boy could jump over, and where the weeds were so thick 

 as to be almost soM. In fact, like the Carp, with which 

 they have many habits in common, they appear to prefer foul 

 and weedy to clear waters; and such as produce the one 

 species will very constantly be found to produce the other. 

 In weight the Tench seldom exceeds 5 or 6 lbs., although 

 heavier specimens are occasionally caught ; the largest on 

 record weighed somewhat over 11 lbs. and was taken from 

 just such a pit as that above described, where it had pro- 

 bably battened for half a century. The account of its cap- 

 ture is given by Daniel * : — 



" A piece of water which had been ordered to be filled 

 up, and into which wood and rubbish had been thrown for 

 years, was directed to be cleared out. Labourers were 

 accordingly employed; and, almost choked up by weeds 

 and mud, so little water remained that no person expected 

 to see any fish, except a few Eels ; yet nearly two hundred 



* Daniel's Eural Sports. 



G 5 



