SOME FISHES OF THE DISTRICY. II5 
almost anything that gets into the water falls a prey to its 
appetite. Its teeth are admirably adapted for its mode of 
life, and on each side of the lower jaw will be found a row 
of long and very sharp teeth firmly fixed in the jaw. The 
edges of the upper jaw have none, except a few small ones 
just in front: but on looking into its mouth three nearly 
parallel bands of teeth will be found on the palate, one in 
the centre, and the others on each side. On the central band 
the largest teeth are in front, and on the lateral bands the 
largest are on the inside. The remarkable point about these 
teeth is, that each one is furnished with a hinge at its base, 
and they are capable of being bent down in the direction of 
the throat until they lhe in a nearly horizontal position. The 
object of this arrangement is obvious. When a pike seizes 
another fish it is nearly always caught crosswise, and is at 
once impaled on the long teeth of the lower jaw. The mouth 
being closed, the prey is held up against the roof of its mouth 
by the tongue, and it becomes impossible for it to move except 
in the direction of the pike’s throat. Assisted by this remark- 
able arrangement of teeth, the pike is enabled to turn its 
capture lengthwise in its mouth before commencing to swal- 
low it, and the struggles of the fish attempting to escape 
probably help on the operation. 
Pike are to be found in nearly every pond and stream in the 
country, and it is often a matter of much difficulty to account 
for their appearance in ponds apparently cut off from commu- 
nication with other waters. Izaak Walton says, “It is not” 
**to be doubted but that they are bred, some by generation” 
‘‘and some not, as namely, of a weed called pickerel weed,”’ 
‘unless the learned Gesner be much mistaken, for he says” 
“this weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of the” 
*‘sun’s heat in some particular months, and some ponds” 
‘‘apted to it by nature, do become pikes.’ There is no doubt 
that ‘‘the learned Gesner’’ was much mistaken, and the 
probable explanation is that eggs are conveyed in some way 
