94 MALACOP. ABDOM. PIKE FAMILY. 



And their boldness in all this is astonishing. " I 

 have seen," says Mr. Jesse, " one follow a bait within 

 a foot of the spot where I have been standing." 

 " Upon one occasion," says Mr. Colqnhoun, " when 

 playing a good sized trout in Loch Dronkie, an 

 enormous pike made several dashes, and at last suc- 

 ceeded in seizing it. I used every effort to frighten 

 him away ; but so determined was he, that, though 

 I could see him quite plainly in shallow water, with 

 my trout held across his tremendous jaws, he would 

 not be beat off; and at last when kicking the water, 

 I strained my line, he gave a plunge, broke my rod, 

 and escaped with his prey." (The Moor and the 

 Loch, 114). But they are even more bold than 

 this. Major Payne, now residing at Weybridge in 

 Surrey, says Mr. Jesse, informed me that, walking 

 one day by the side of the river Wey, he saw a large 

 pike in a shallow creek. He immediately pulled off 

 his coat, tucked up his sleeves, and went into the 

 water to intercept the return of the fish to the river, 

 and to endeavour to throw it upon the bank, by get- 

 ting his hand beneath it. During the attempt, the 

 pike finding he could not make his escape, seized 

 one of the major's arms, and lacerated it pretty con- 

 siderably. With a well known facetious writer on 

 Natural History, we add, " we think the fish was 

 right." Mr. Jesse, moreover, states that the head- 

 keeper of Richmond Park, assured him he was one 

 day washing his hand at the side of a boat, in the 

 great pond in that park, when a pike made a dart 

 at it, and he had but just time to withdraw it. 



