LITERATURE AND HISTORY 



fact, that it is extremely difficult to tell where one 

 leaves off and the other begins. That Izaak Walton, 

 that Nestor of anglers, believed many odd things 

 regarding this 'Tyrant" is true, to-wit, his statement 

 that undoubtedly the fish is sometimes the offspring of 

 common pickerel weed. When he tells of two young 

 geese being found at one time in the stomach of a pike, 

 we are somewhat staggered; but when he soberly 

 affirms "A Pike, in his height of hunger, will bite at 

 and devour a dog that swims in a pond," we have a 

 faint suspicion that perhaps the gentle Izaak was a 

 wee bit too credulous, e'en though he adds earnestly, 

 "I might say more of this, but it might be thought 

 curiosity or worse." Evidently even in his day a 

 fisherman's "yarns" were regarded with some sus- 

 picion. 



One of the most weird bits of "information" he gives 

 us is the following, which he credits to Dubravius, a 

 bishop of Bohemia, who wrote a book upon "Of Fish 

 and Fish Ponds," and Walton says, asserts he saw with 

 his own eyes. I quote verbatim: 



"As he [Dubravius] and the Bishop Thurzo were 

 walking by a large pond in Bohemia they saw a Frog, 

 when the Pike lay very sleepily and quiet by the shore- 

 side, leap upon his head, and the Frog, having expressed 

 malice or anger by his swollen cheeks and staring eyes, 

 did stretch out his legs and embrace the Pike's head 

 and presently reached them to his eyes, tearing with 

 them and his teeth those tender parts; the Pike, 

 moved with anguish, moves up and down the water 

 and rubs himself against weeds and whatever he 

 thought might quit him of his enemy; but all in vain, 

 for the Frog did continue to ride triumphantly and to 



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