8o THE SPORTING FISH 



makes the Pike the undisputed master of our fresh 

 waters, akhough it has been asserted that, from its 

 superior momentum, a Trout or Sahnon of equal 

 weight would have the advantage in a pitched 

 battle. I doubt it much. What chance these fish 

 have against the Pike is shown by the effect of 

 introducing the latter into trouting and salmon 

 waters, where the new-comer speedily dispossesses 

 the rightful tenants. Witness, for instance, the 

 ravages committed in the Canterbury River, in 

 the Wandle, in the Colne near Draycot and Cow- 

 ley, in the Teviot, and in Lochs Katrine, Lomond, 

 Awe, and Jurit in Scotland ; and the same thing is 

 known to have taken place in many of the best 

 Irish waters, where the Pike is still continuing to 

 spread and multiply, displacing by degrees the 

 Trout and other indigenous races. 



Indeed, how Pike spread is a problem which it 

 has perplexed naturalists to explain. A stream, or 

 pond, or loch, reserved perhaps for centuries to 

 the docile phlegmatic Carp, or " star-stoled Trout," 

 suddenly begins to show symptoms of a falling off; 

 the next year matters are worse ; the water is 

 dragged, and the first fish to come up in the net is 

 probably a Pike. How the Pike came there, or 

 who put it there, remains unexplained ; but the 

 cause of the depletion of the water is no longer a 

 mystery. Some authors have accounted for these 

 singular immigrations by supposing that the Pike, 

 like the Eel, actually travels overland in wet 



