LITERATURE AND HISTORY 



much truth there may be in the yarn I am unable to 

 determine, but it appears in every English angling 

 work upon pike read by me. Personally, I regard it 

 as highly apocryphal. Yet Mr. Cholmondeley-Pennell, 

 in his book mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, 

 not only relates the story, but also gives a facsimile 

 of the ring worn by the fish, with the following transla- 

 tion of its Greek inscription: 



**I am the fish which was first of all put into this 

 lake by the hands of the Governor of the Universe, 

 Frederick II, Oct. 5, 1230." 



As the talented author remarks, it is somewhat 

 strange that the engraving found in the old black- 

 letter copy of Gesner's famous work, published in 

 Heidelberg, A. D. 1606, should have escaped discovery 

 for so many years. We are expected to believe that 

 this fish grew to the prodigious length of nineteen 

 feet and reached the not inconsiderable weight of 

 350 pounds! Advocate of light tackle though I am, 

 I am not altogether sure that I would be willing to try 

 conclusions with that minnow, even with my heavy 

 bass rod, which weighs seven ounces. Unfortunately 

 for the story, the skeleton, which was for a number 

 of years preserved in the Cathedral of Mannheim, was 

 found, by a shrewd anatomist acquainted with the 

 bones of a fish, to have been lengthened by artificial 

 means to agree with the story. But why investigate 

 too thoroughly? Has it been altogether a gain to 

 discover that Pocahontas did not save the life of 

 Captain John Smith, and that the story of George 

 and the cherry tree has no basis in fact? Why be too 

 matter-of-fact? I do not care to examine any fish 

 story too closely. 



^7 



