JOTTINGS FROM MY NOTE-BOOK. 213 



is insatiable, and that nothing comes amiss to it. 

 Day, in his British Fishes, says that it will not 

 refuse a frog, a rat, a plump puppy, a tender kitten, 

 a duck, or a goose. Dr. Ienzek credited it with 

 making a meal of a fox ; while Dr. Crull, in his 

 Present State of Muscovy, states that one of these 

 fishes had an infant child in its stomach. It is said 

 of the female that when she has received the service 

 of the male she turns round and swallows him. The 

 poet, too, has established in the minds of the people 

 the bloodthirsty propensities of the " ruthless pike, 

 intent on war," and his savage appearance, which 

 no one can doubt, goes far to confirm all that has 

 been said of him. 



According to tradition, this tyrant has a long reign 

 of terror. " A pike that died about fifty years ago 

 in Russia dated its birth back to the good old age, 

 to the fifteenth century, so, considering that it was 

 born in 1450 and expired in 1830, it must have lived 

 380 years. But, as the old proverbs say, ' get the 

 name of early rising and you may lie in bed all 

 da3 r .' When one good story is accepted it becomes 

 a guarantee for those that may follow. There can 

 be no doubt that many of the statements regarding 

 the doings of the pike have to be taken with con- 

 siderable allowance. If we again go back to tradition, 

 it is stated how Frederick II., in October, 1230, 

 inserted a brass ring into the gills of the pike, 

 bearing a suitable inscription, and this fish was 

 recaptured 267 years subsequently, 17 or 19 feet long 

 and weighing 550 lbs. The skeleton was preserved 

 in the Cathedral at Mannheim ; but being examined 

 by a German naturalist it was found that the length 

 of its vertebral column was obtained by using the 

 bones of several fish." 



There are other reasons, however, that tend to 

 modify some of the statements regarding the pike. 

 Last June, while on a short sojourn at Loch Lomond* 

 I had, through the kindness of Mr. Alfred Brown, an 

 opportunity of examining some of these fish. In 



