92 MALACOP. ABDOM. PIKE FAMILY. 



that at the Lillisliall Limeworks, near Newport, a 

 pool about nine yards deep, which had not been 

 fished for ages, was drained, when an enormous 

 Pike was drawn up, amidst hundreds of spectators ; 

 it weighed 170 lbs., and was thought to be the 

 largest ever seen. 



The Longevity of this fish also is very remark- 

 able. Rzaczynski, as quoted by Pennant, tells us 

 of one which was ninety years old ; and the extra- 

 ordinary story related by Gesner, thanks to his 

 respectability, has ever since been faithfully copied, 

 not to say credited, by nearly all subsequent Ich- 

 thyologists. It runs thus : — That, in the year 1499, 

 a Pike was taken near Hailbrun, in Suabia, with a 

 brazen ring affixed to it (of which a representation 

 is given '»in Gesner), in which were these words in 

 Greek characters, " I am a fish which was first of 

 all put into this lake, by the hands of the Governor 

 of the universe, Frederick II., the 5th of October, 

 1233;" whence it was inferred that it was 264 

 years old ; and it was said to weigh 350 lbs. (Sir J. 

 Hawkins, a. Walton, p. 134.) One would naturally 

 feel incredulous on the point ; but Gesner adds that 

 its skeleton was long preserved at Manheim as a 

 great curiosity. 



That it is a great feeder, has been allowed, and 

 the stories of its boldness and voracity are quite ex- 

 traordinary. The appetite, says Mr. Jesse, of one of 

 my pikes, five pounds weight, in the preserve of 

 Bushy Park was almost insatiable. One morning 

 I threw to him, one after another, five roach, each 



