GEN. ESOX. THE COMMON PIKE. 97 



three dozen jBne red trout may be taken in a day." 

 (L. c. 113). These enlightened views, thus reached 

 by the sagacious sportsman, coincide with those of 

 the scientific breeder ; and accordingly, Mr. Boccius 

 directs that to every acre of water, you put in two 

 hundred brood carp, twenty brood tench, twenty 

 jack, all of one season's spawn ; the jack with all 

 its voracity being absolutely necessary to cheek un- 

 due increase, whereby deficiency of food would create 

 a famine and impoverish all. 



The relative power of the Pike, Walton's tyrant 

 of fresh water fishes, and the salmon, his king of 

 fishes, is different from what, considering the formi- 

 dable armour and furious character of the former, 

 we should be led to infer. Thus, we are informed 

 by Mr. Mudie, editor of the English edition of the 

 Regne Animal, that it is generally said, that not- 

 withstanding the havoc which the Pike commits 

 among smaller fishes, it will not stand the attack 

 of a trout of equal weight, the immense velocity of 

 the latter fish in swimming giving it a decided ad- 

 vantage. (L. c. 315). 



In Mr. Yarrell's admirable work will be found a 

 detailed account of the method of fishing Pike with 

 trimmers, or liggers, as they are provincially called, 

 " afibrding great diversion," in Horsea Mere and 

 Heigham Sounds, covering a surface of about six hun- 

 dred acres, in Norfolk, and which in four days' sport 

 produced two hundred and fifty-six Pikes, weigh- 

 ing together eleven hundred and thirty-five pounds. 

 iSubstantially the same method is sometimes prac- 



