AMERICAN FISHES. 



dates have not that quality of veracity which is required by science," it is 

 also true that it was the practice in early days to fasten inscribed rings in 

 the gill covers of fishes. Pennell states that in 1610, a Pike was taken in 

 the Meuse, bearing a copper ring dating 144S. It is very curious that no 

 English writer on the Pike seems to have taken pains to investigate the 

 German records which undoubtedly contain accurate and critical esti- 

 mates of the value of this tradition. 



Buckland seems disposed to doubt the existence of Pike larger than 

 those which have come " under his own personal knowledge," a method 

 sufficiently skeptical no doubt, but not necessarily scientific. He saw one 

 forty-six and a half inches long, weighing thirty-five pounds, and ascer- 

 tained to be about thirteen years old, another thirty inches long, weighing 

 twenty-four pounds, another of forty-three inches, and twenty-eight 

 pounds, and forty-four inches and thirty-two pounds, and two others, one 

 forty-six and a half inches, and thirty-five pounds, and one forty-six 

 inches, and thirty-six pounds, were taken by his friend Mr. Jardine. 

 Daniell, in his "Rural Sports," speakes of a Scotch example, seventy-two 

 pounds, and over seven feet in length. Pennell refers to others captured 

 on the Continent, which weighed 80, 97, and 145 pounds, the latter 

 caught at Bregenty in 1S62. 



There is no inherent improbability in these stories, since the Muskel- 

 lunge often attains the weight of eighty pounds or more, as is attested by 

 numerous witnesses. 



No records of colossal Pike are found in the annals of American 

 anglers — perhaps because the large Pike are usually pronounced by uncriti- 

 cal anglers to be in Muskellunge. 



The western Pickerel, Esox vermiculatus, said to have been known to 

 the Indians by the name Piccanau, has been known to attain the weight 

 of twenty pounds,* but at the present day never exceeds seven or eight, 

 and as usually seen, is not more than a foot in length. The eastern brook 

 Pickerel is likewise diminutive. 



In his census investigation of the Great Lakes, Mr. Kumlien obtained 

 the following notes upon the abundance of the Pike and Muskellunge : 



"On the western shore of Lake Michigan, Pike appear to be resident 

 in those portions of the lake off Racine, and are very rarely taken in gill- 

 nets. At the west end of Lake Erie, individuals are at rare intervals taken 



* Mississippi. 



