GEX. ESOX. THE COMMON PIKE. 91 



Ken wliicli weiohed sixty-one pounds (The Rod, 

 61 ) , and Dr. Buslinan has already related, in the 

 second volume of this Series, that Colonel Thornton, 

 of sporting celebrity, caught one by trolling in Loch- 

 Awe, after a struggle of one hour and a quarter, 

 which weighed fifty pounds : it measured exactly 

 four feet four inches from eye to fork, and, jaws 

 und tail included, could scarcely be less than five 

 feet. " So dreadful a forest of teeth or tusks," ex- 

 claims the Colonel, " T think I never beheld :" also 

 that another was taken in a loch in Galloway of the 

 enormous size of seventy-two pounds, which the 

 Doctor understands rose at an artificial fly (Nat. 

 Lib. Ichthy. ii. 202) ; while Mr. Selby states " we 

 have seen a record of a Pike taken in Loch-Lomond 

 of seventy-nine pounds weight (Mag. of Zool. and 

 Bot. 391.) Some of the Irish lakes are said to 

 have afibrded Pikes of equal dimensions ; and in 

 colder countries they appear to attain a still greater 

 size. Those of four or five feet, says Mr. Griffith, 

 are not rare in the numerous lakes of the north of 

 Europe, and in the great rivers of the north of Asia ; 

 and Dr. Brand, on his estate near Berlin, caught 

 one which measured seven feet in length (Loc. cit. 

 p. 467) ; the largest of those taken in Lapland, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Schoeffer, as quoted by Pennant, 

 extend sometimes to eight feet ; they are dried and 

 exported in great quantities ; while Bloch examined 

 the skeleton of one which could not, in his estima- 

 tion, have been at all less ; and finally, in the Lon- 

 don newspapers for the year 17^5, it was stated 



