OF GREAT BRITAIN. 75 



growth, in open waters, does not much exceed 

 half a pound. The grounds of this conclusion are 

 briefly as follow : — Pike spawn in March or April ; 

 in June, when Pike-fishing commences, I have 

 not unfrequently taken, and seen taken, with 

 the net, small Jack of about an ounce, or a little 

 more, in weight ; in September, again, I have 

 constantly taken them, with a minnow, of ihrce or 

 four ounces ; and in January and February speci- 

 mens of from yft'^ to seven otinccs ; whilst I have 

 never within my memory caught the smaller-sized 

 fish at the later periods, or vice versa, — thus point- 

 ing clearly to the inference that at these seasons 

 there were young Jack of those respective sizes, 

 and none others — in other words, that the different 

 sizes represented the different stages of growth. 

 These I believe to be the fish of about \ lb. of 

 the following season. 



The Pike is a true cosmopolitan in his feeding. 

 Fish, flesh, and fowl are alike acceptable to him. 

 Animal, mineral, and vegetable — his rapacity de- 

 vours them all. Lord Walsingham writes to me 

 that he once caught a pike with a hare's foot, and 

 on another occasion with a dead rat ! Nothing, in 

 short, that he can by any means get into his 

 stomach comes amiss to him ; and imperial man 

 himself has on more than one occasion narrowly 

 escaped being laid under contribution to his larder. 

 His own species enjoy no immunity from this uni- 

 versal rapacity; on the contrary, it has been asserted 



