PIKES. 22o 



Dr. Mellerborg, that he had himself seen an enor- 

 mous Pike, with an Eagle fastened to his back, 

 lying dead on a piece of ground which had been 

 overflowed, but from which the water had then 

 retreated. Captain Eurenius informed the same 

 author that he was once an eye-witness of a simi- 

 lar circumstance. In this instance, when the 

 Eagle first seized the Pike, he succeeded in lift- 

 ing him for a short distance into the air ; the 

 weight of the fish, however, combined with its 

 struggles, soon carried both down again into the 

 water, under which they disappeared. Presently 

 the Eagle was seen at the surface, uttering pierc- 

 ing cries, and apparently making great efforts to 

 extricate its talons ; all however were in vain, for 

 after a long continued struggling he finally dis- 

 appeared in the depths of the river.* 



In the Swedish rivers the gums of the Pike are 

 said to be periodically subject to a disorder by 

 which they become of so spongy a texture, and 

 so much swollen, that the teeth which are then 

 partially concealed from view, seem scarcely able 

 to perform their function. This change is said 

 always to take place about the time of new moon. 

 The Wermeland fishermen assert that while his 

 gums are in this diseased state, the Pike is almost 

 incapable of devouring his prey, and therefore, at 

 the time mentioned, they hardly take the trouble 

 of laying out their lines ; and these simple people 

 assign as the reason for this periodical impotency, 

 that if his teeth were always in good order the 

 Pike would soon eat up all other fishes. f 



The size, strength, agility, and ferocity of the 



* Field Sports of the North of Europe, i. 216. 

 t Field Sports, &c. i. 216. 



Q 



