THE PIKE 



IN America, the pike is abundant over the 

 whole northern part of the continent, as 

 far south as Ohio, excepting upon the 

 Pacific slope. Its anatomy is dealt with in 

 another part of this work. It grows to an enor- 

 mous size, though there are no records of such 

 large fish belonging to this family in America, as 

 they have in Europe. Many of the Old World 

 pike stories have an apocryphal air about them ; 

 while, on the other hand, there is no doubt that 

 some of the largest pike taken out of American 

 waters have passed for maskinonge. Yet marvel- 

 lous are the stories that are told of the pike which 

 go about, like roaming water-wolves, seeking what 

 they may devour, both in the St. Lawrence and 

 also in the depths of Lake St. John and its tribu- 

 tary streams, as well as in the large lakes lying 

 away towards and beyond the Height of Land. 

 Many of them far exceed in weight the generally 

 accepted limit of size of the ordinary Esox lucius, 

 and I have frequently been told, in consequence, 

 that I was wrong in my identification and nomen- 

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