FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



on which were these words in Greek characters : 

 <( Iam the fish which was first of all put into this 

 lake by the hands of the Governor of the Universe, 

 Frederic the Second, the 5th of October, 1230." 

 If there was any truth in the alleged engraved 

 legend, the fish was at least two hundred and sixty- 

 seven years old, and is said to have weighed three 

 hundred and fifty pounds. The skeleton was long 

 preserved at Manheim, as a great curiosity in nat- 

 ural history. One story states that it measured 

 nineteen feet long. On the other hand, there is 

 a report that several vertebrae were added to the 

 skeleton from time to time. 



There are undoubted records of pike of twenty- 

 eight to thirty-four pounds having been taken in 

 Horsea Mere, near Norfolk ; while Scotch lakes 

 have produced them up to fifty-five pounds, and 

 some of the Irish lakes are said to have yielded 

 them up to seventy pounds. Mr. Alfred Jardine 

 has a record of a thirty-seven-pound pike in Buck- 

 inghamshire. 



The pike is undoubtedly the most voracious of 

 fresh-water fishes, and while his shape is admirably 

 adapted for piercing his way through the weed 

 beds and rushes where he lies in wait for his prey, 

 the color of his back and sides, green with yellow 

 markings, harmonizes with his surroundings, and 

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