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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



unmistakable signs of the affections alluded to, but in 

 one case — the pike — even gratitude seems to be mani- 

 fested. My readers may possible smile incredulously 

 at the suggestion that any excellence of feeling can 

 be associated with the " fresh -water wolf," over 

 whose cruel and remorseless jaws the Dantean epi- 

 graph, "All hope abandon, ye who enter here," 

 might fitly be written. Such, however, is the case. 



As the warm spring weather approaches, and sum- 

 mer hastens to ensue, the pike seeks the convenient 

 tributaries of the river, or the shallow and weeded 

 parts of the lake wherein to spawn. At this time 

 the males and females may be presumed to be sepa- 

 rate and unmated. Guided by the reproductive 

 instinct, however, they more or less quickly pair ; 

 and it is just prior to spawning that the delight 

 which they experience with each other's society is 

 most apparent. The female is generally larger than 

 the male, and piscine caresses are mutually indulged 

 in. I have frequently seen the male rub his mottled 

 sides against his partner, and gambol and dash about 

 as if to show off his glee and his prowess as a water 

 athlete ; and on one occasion I remember the caresses 

 of a two-pound fish were so energetic as to completely 

 force the female up on the sloping bank. I captured 

 the fish and replaced her in the water at considerable 

 distance, but the remorseful widower was in the 

 neighbourhood where I had first seen them on my 

 return, evidently waiting the return of his mate. 

 Whether his patience was ultimately rewarded de- 

 ponent saith not. 



The pike is for the most part monogamous. An 

 example of this is interestingly given by Mr. Manley 

 in his " Fish and Fishing." He says, "I was jack- 

 fishing in the lake in Earl Fitzhardinge's park, and 

 had left a paternoster for perch baited with gudgeon in 

 the sluggish stream above the small bridge. On my 

 return from a walk round trolling, I found I had to 

 encounter a fine jack which had attached herself to 

 the paternoster, and after no little trouble I landed 

 my fish, which scaled over 14 lbs. In the same 

 manner, and exactly at the same spot, just a week 

 afterwards I took another — the gentleman fish this 

 time weighing 13 lbs. I have no doubt that these 

 were an engaged or rather married pair just at the 

 commencement of their honeymoon, and that after 

 the cruel (I have often thought since that it was very 

 cruel) capture of his bride, the bridegroom, dis- 

 consolate, hung about the spot, and so came also to a 

 miserable end within a few days of the decease of his 

 wife." That it is a very customary occurrence to 

 secure a pair of fish from one spot no angler will 

 deny. In fact, on taking a good fish from any par- 

 ticular spot it is a recognised plan amongst the 

 brothers of the craft to try for the other fish. In 

 lakes the pairing is certainly more noticeable than in 

 rivers. Whether the fishes hunt their food in pairs 

 as a rule I cannot say, but that they reside in con- 

 tiguity is an indisputable fact. The ruff also will not 



live singly in aquaria, but die off — at least this is my 

 experience. Unhappily the jack does not exhibit 

 much parental affection, for it is an indiscriminate 

 cannibal, and perhaps the best bait for a large pike is 

 a small jack. 



Having thus shown that the character of this 

 voracious fish of prey is of a somewhat lighter hue 

 than generally supposed, perhaps the reader will be 

 prepared to hear a further good trait, the existence of 

 which is however indubitably more questionable than 

 the former. I refer to the exhibition of that rarest of 

 virtues in the "genus homo, namely, gratitude. In 

 order to justify the idea that Esax Lucius exhibits this 

 noble quality, I must refer at ^some little length to 

 another fish of widely different family — the tench. 

 Now this fish is covered with a thick glutinous slime, 

 which is supposed to be of such medicinal worth to 

 the piscine tribes that at the "touch of tenches" 

 wounds and other disorders that fish is heir to are 

 instantly bettered, and if the contiguity of the fishes 

 be preserved, are ultimately healed. It is a certain 

 fact that trout are rendered healthier by the intro- 

 duction of a tench or two amongst them, and I have 

 known several instances of the growth of byssus 

 being arrested on the advent of this "physician of 

 fishes." Camden asserts that this is the case with 

 pike, and his language is pronounced with no air of 

 hesitation, though he was probably not a naturalist. 

 Speaking of Southwark he says, " Here have I seen 

 the bellies of pikes which have been rent open have 

 their gaping wounds presently closed by the touch of 

 tenches, and by their glutinous slime perfectly healed 

 up." Of course this assertion may be taken with 

 caution, but the concurrent testimony of many 

 observers as to the healing power manifested by this 

 fish must be in some sort accepted. 



Now here comes in the gratitude of the pike, if the 

 idea is not too pretty to be true. Be he ever so 

 hungry he never takes a tench. Carp and all other 

 fish he will eat incontinently, in fact nothing else 

 from a red cork float to a baby, or from a Polish 

 damsel's foot to a mule's nose, comes amiss to him, 

 but a tench he will not touch. The following admir- 

 able verses state the matter better than I can : 



" The pike, fell tyrant of the liquid plain, 

 With ravenous haste 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 diseased, j 



He courts the salutary fish for ease, 

 Close to his scales the kind physician glides, 

 And sweats a healing balsam from his sides." 



Who will now deny his pikeship the virtues I claim 

 for him — conjugal constancy and affection and grati- 

 tude ? By-the-by, speaking of tench reminds me that 

 this fish is especially tumultuous in its affection and 

 movements during the spawning season, and frolics 

 and jostles right lovingly. So much is this the case, 

 that I have repeatedly taken them by hand when they 

 have been too absorbed in their pursuit of each other 

 to be aware of danger. 



