74 PIKE. 



Hie etiam Latio risus prsenomine, cultor 

 Stagnorum querulis vis infestissima ranis 

 Lucius, obscuras ulva ctenoque lacunas 

 Obsidet: hie nullos mensarum lectus ad usus, 

 Fervet fumosis olido nidore propinis. (120 — iz+.) 



"Here also, under a name ridiculous in Latium,* an inhabitant of the ponds, a most hostile power to the croaking 

 frogs, the Pike (Lucius) haunts the pools dark with weed and mud ; this fish, chosen for no uses of the table, steams 

 with a bad smell in the smoking cook shops." 



Dr. Badham renders the passage in verse, less literally, — 



"The wary luce midst wrack and rushes hid, 

 The scourge and terror of the scaly brood. 

 Unknown at friendship's hospitable board. 

 Smokes 'midst the smoky tavern's coarsest food." 



The Pike is supposed by some to be an introduced fish into this country, and although 

 it is now very common in the rivers, ponds, and lakes of England, Wales, Scotland, and 

 Ireland, there is evidence to show that at one time it was considered rare. " In the latter 

 part of the thirteenth century," says Yarrell, "Edward the First, who condescended to regulate 

 the prices of the different sorts of fish then brought to market, that his subjects might not 

 be left to the mercy of the vendors, fixed the value of Pike higher than that of fresh 

 Salmon, and more than ten times greater than that of the best Turbot or Cod." Pikes are 

 mentioned in an act of the sixth year of the reign of Richard the Second, 1382, which 

 relates to the forestalling of fish, (see Pennant, Brit. Zool. iii. p. 425, ed. 181 2); and they 

 were served at the great feast given by Archbishop Neville in the year 1466. Pike are said 

 to have been so rare in the reign of Henry the Eighth that a large one sold for double the 

 price of a lamb in February, and a Pickerel (or small Pike) for more than a fat capon. 



According to Couch the Pike is known in almost every part of England except Cornwall. 

 It is found in the fresh waters of the temperate parts of Europe, Asia, and North America; 

 in American specimens, according to Glinther, there are generally seventeen anal rays, and 

 only exceptionally nineteen ; whilst the European examples have nineteen, a less number being 

 of very rare occurrence. 



The usual haunts of the Pike in the deep pools of slow-flowing rivers, and weedy ponds, 

 did not escape the notice of Ausonius as quoted in the lines above. "In such places, shrouded 

 from observation in his solitary retreat, he follows with his 63^6 the motions of the shoals of 

 fish that wander heedlessly along; he marks the water-rat swimming to his burrow, the duck- 

 lings paddling among the water-weeds, the dabchick and the moorhen leisurely swimming on 

 the surface ; he selects his victim, and like the tiger, springing from the jungle, he rushes 

 forth, seldom indeed missing his aim : there is a sudden rush, circle after circle forms on the 

 surface of the water, and all is still again in an instant." — [British Fis/i and Fisheries.) 



I need not give many instances of the well-known voracity of the Pike; such as may be 

 seen in the works of some of the old writers, as Gesner, Rondeletius, Walton, and others. 

 But the following quite modern story (for it happened in June 1856) is well authenticated, and 

 is given by Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell in his excellent handbook The Angler N'atnralist ; it is 

 headed "Particulars of an Encounter with a Fish in the month of June, 1856." The account is 

 given by the boy's father, Mr. George Longhurst, of Sunning Hill. "One of my sons, aged 

 fifteen, went with three other boys to bathe in Inglemere Pond, near Ascot Racecourse ; he walked 



*■ Lucius was a favourite prcenomen among the Romans, as is attested by the frequent occurrence of the letter L. 

 at the beginning of inscriptions. King Lucius Tarquinius Priscus appears to have been the first important personage 

 who bore the name, which is evidently derived from lux, "light." Ausonius means to say that it is ridiculous for 

 so worthless a fish as the Pike to be called after a name which kings and nobles have borne. 



