PIKE. 439 



Pike with Jiggers on these extensive waters is considered 

 to be peculiar, and affords great diversion, I may state that 

 the ligger or trimmer is a long cylindrical float, made of 

 wood or cork, or rushes tied together at each end : to the 

 middle of this float a string is fixed, in length from eight to 

 fifteen feet ; this string is wound round the float except two 

 or three feet, when the trimmer is to be put into the water, 

 and slightly fixed by a notch in the wood or cork, or by 

 putting it between the ends of the rushes. The bait is fixed 

 on the hook, and the hook fastened to the end of the pen- 

 dent string, and the whole then dropped into the water. By 

 this arrangement, the bait floats at any required depth, 

 which should have some reference to the temperature of the 

 season ; Pike swimming near the surface in fine warm wea- 

 ther, and deeper when it is colder, but generally keeping 

 near their peculiar haunts. When the bait is seized by a 

 Pike, the jerk looses the fastening, and the whole string un- 

 winds ; the wood, cork, or rushes, floating at the top, indicat- 

 ing what has occurred. Floats of wood or cork are generally 

 painted in order to render them more distinctly visible on the 

 water to the fishers who pursue their amusement and the 

 Jiggers in boats. Floats of rushes are preferred to others, as 

 least calculated to excite suspicion in the fish. 



The body of the Pike is elongated, nearly uniform in 

 depth from the head to the commencement of the dorsal fin, 

 then becoming narrower; the surface covered with small 

 scales, the lateral line indistinct : the length of the head 

 compared to the whole length of head, body, and tail, as one 

 to four : the dorsal fin, placed very far back, commences in a 

 vertical line over the vent ; the first ray short ; the second 

 and third increasing in length, but shorter than the fourth ; 

 the length of the base of the fin about equal to the length of 

 the longest of its rays : the dorsal and anal fins terminate on 

 the same plane. From the point of the nose to the origin of 



