THE PIKE 



B. A. Scott, in 1892. Mr. E. J. Myers, of New 

 York, claims a forty-seven-pound pike, taken by 

 him in Lac Tschotagama, in July, 1891, and I 

 have seen one of at least five feet in length, hooked 

 in the Peribonca. To so large a size have these 

 fish attained in Lake St. John, and so voracious 

 are they known to be, that many of the settlers 

 about its shores are too frightened of them to 

 venture to bathe in its waters. Both dogs and 

 water-fowl swimming upon its surface have been 

 attacked by these fresh-water sharks. In company 

 with the late A. N. Cheney, I trolled with a 

 spoon, one day, in this lake for pike. We killed 

 them up to fourteen pounds in weight, on our 

 trout rods. 



In England, the pike is supposed to have been 

 an introduced fish ; for, some few centuries ago, it 

 was quite rare in that country, so much so that 

 Edward the First, who fixed the price of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of fish, so that his subjects might not 

 be left at the mercy of the dealers, placed the 

 value of pike higher than that of salmon, and 

 more than ten times as much as that of cod. 



Pliny considered the pike to be the largest and 



longest-lived of all fresh-water fish. Gesner relates 



that, in the year 1497, one was ta ^- en at Hali- 



brun in Suabia with a brazen ring attached to it, 



41 



