PIKE. 151 



backward the fish was lifted out of the water and secured. 

 Another of these fishes was known to have seized the foot 

 of a young woman as she held it naked in a pond. 



A more modern instance of similar ferocity is given from 

 Mr. Pennell's "Angler Naturalist," as quoted in the "Athenaeum ;" 

 and the half-starved condition of the fish in this case will help 

 us to understand the influence which was at Avork in the other 

 instances, to drive these fishes to the remarkable manifestations 

 of boldness reported of them: — A young gentleman, "aged 

 fifteen, went with three other boys to bathe in Inglemere Pond, 

 near Ascot race-course, in June, 1856; he walked gently into 

 the water to about the depth of four feet, when he spread out 

 his hands to attempt to swim; instantly a large fish came up 

 and took his hand into his mouth as far as the wrist, but 

 finding he could not swallow it, relinquished his hold, and the 

 boy turning round, prepared for a hasty retreat out of the 

 pond; his companions who saw it also scrambled out as fast as 

 possible." He "had scarcely turned himself round Avhen the 

 fish came up behind him, and immediately seized his other 

 hand crosswise, inflicting some very deep wounds on the back 

 of it; the boy raised his first bitten and still bleeding arm, and 

 struck the monster a hard blow on the head, when the fish 

 disappeared." Seven wounds were dressed on one hand, "and 

 so great was the pain the next day, that the lad fainted twice; 

 the little finger was bitten through the nail, and it was more 

 than six weeks before it was well. The nail came off, and the 

 scar remains to this day. A few days after this occurrence one 

 of the woodmen was walking by the side of the pond, when 

 he saw something white floating." It was found to be a large 

 Pike in a dying state, and he brought it to the shore, "and 

 the boy at once recognised his antagonist. The fish apjoeared 

 to have been a long time in the agonies of death, and the body 

 was very lean and curved like a bow. It measured forty-one 

 inches, and died the next day. There can be no doubt the 

 fish was in a state of complete starvation. If well fed it is 

 probable it might have weighed from thirty to forty pounds." 

 In Dr. Crull's "Present State of Muscovy, (1698,)" mention is 

 made of a Pike that when taken was found to have an infant 

 child in its stomach. 



A more ordinary occurrence has been the seizure of ducks 



