amongst weeds. And yet, I am sure, he eats pleasantly, and, doubtless, you will think so too, if you taste him. And I shall therefore proceed to give you some few, and but a few, directions how to catch this Tench, of which I have given you these observations.

He will bite at a paste made of brown bread and honey, or at a marsh-worm or a lob-worm; he inclines very much to any paste with which tar is mixt, and he will bite also at a smaller worm with his head nipped off, and a cod-worm put on the hook before that worm. And I doubt not but that he will also, in the three hot months, for in the nine colder he stirs not much, bite at a flag-worm, or at a green gentle; but can positively say no more of the Tench, he being a fish I have not often angled for; but I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever fortunate when he fishes.6

PISCATOR.

CHAP. XII.

On the Perch.

*

7

THE Perch is a very good, and a very bold biting fish. He is one of the fishes of prey that, like the Pike and Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, which is very large: and he dare venture to kill and devour several other kinds of fish. He has a hooked or hog back, which is armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed, or covered over with thick dry hard scales, and hath, which few

VARIATIONS.

6 Here, in the first edition, the dialogue is continued thus :

Viator. I thank you, good master: but I pray, sir, since you see it still rains May. butter, give me some observations and directions concerning the Perch, for they say he is both a very good and a bold biting fish, and I would fain learn to fish for him. Piscator. You say true, scholar, the Perch is a very good, &c.

7 In the first edition, in lieu of "which is very large," the words "not in his throat"

Occur.

* The haunts of Tench are nearly the same with those of the Carp. They delight more in ponds than in rivers; and lie under weeds, near sluices, and at pond-heads. They spawn about the beginning of July; and are best in season from the beginning of September to the end of May. They will bite all the hot months; but are best taken in April and May. There are no better baits for this fish than a middle-sized lob-worm, or red-worm, well scoured; a gentle; a young wasp-grub, boiled; or a green worm shook from the boughs of a tree. Use a strong grass, or gut; and a goose-quill float without a cork, except in rivers, where the cork is always to be preferred. Fish very near the ground: and if you bait with gentles, throw in a few at the taking every fish, which will draw them to your hook, and keep them together.-H.

The Tench appears to be a native of most parts of the globe. Its general length is about twelve or fourteen inches, but, like most other fishes, it is occasionally found of far greater magnitude; and we are told that it has sometimes been found to measure two or three feet in length, and to weigh no less than eight, ten, or even twenty pounds. See Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. v. part i. p. 214.-E. In cleansing an old pond at Thornville Royal in Yorkshire, in 1801, there was discovered under some roots what was at first conjectured to be an otter. It proved, however, to be a Tench of most singular form. "having literally assumed the shape of the hole in which he had of course been for many years confined. His length from eye to fork was two feet nine inches, his circumference, almost to the tail, two feet three inches; his weight eleven pounds nine ounces. See Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. ii. p. 263, edit. 1802, where an engraving of the fish is given.