PIKE. 155 



whom it aj.pcarctl absurd to apply it to a fish of such little 

 estimation. 



It has been supposed that the Pike attains the age for 

 spawning in three years, and that the youngest deposit their 

 roe at the earliest season of the year, which may be in February 

 or March; after which at successive intervals those of middle 

 age and the oldest succeed them; the whole season continuing 

 for about three months. These fish are very prolific, and we 

 derive from Nilsson the following account of the probable 

 comparative numbers of the grains of spawn to be found in 

 fishes of the two extremes; comprising some whose living is 

 procured from vegetables chiefly, or insects, and the ravenous 

 dcvourer of the full-grown inhabitants of the fresh-water. Thus 

 on the authority of Lund, there have been obtained from a 

 Pike wdiich weighed thirty-five pounds, two hundred 'and seventy- 

 two thousand one hundred and sixty grains of spawn; from a 

 Carp of the weight of three pounds, two hundred and thirty- 

 seven thousand; and from a Tench of the same size, three 

 hundred and eighty-three thousand two hundred and fifty. For 

 a Salmon he reckons a thousand for every pound of its weight; 

 but for the most part fish of fresh-water are less prolific than 

 those of the sea. 



Tlie place of depositing the roe is not the same with the 

 haunts of this fish at other seasons; but a regular migration 

 takes place at the breeding season, in search of such smaller, 

 more rapid, and clearer streams as will suit their purpose; and 

 in doing this they will overcome difficulties that ask no little 

 exertion. The spawn is shed on the cleanest weed, and presently 

 afterward the parent fish return to the weedy nooks of the pond 

 or river, in vv'hich they maintain their station during the remainder 

 of the summer. It has been thought that the object of the 

 parent Pikes in seeking for retired brooks in which to shed 

 their spawn, has been to secure their helpless young ones from 

 the depredations of other fishes, on which in turn they are 

 destined to subsist; but if this were the motive their care avails 

 but little; for the number of Pikes which reach maturity bears 

 only a small proportion to the grains of roe that are shed. It 

 is more probable, however, that they are guided by instinctive 

 feeling to choose a purer water than that of their usual haunts, 

 and a mixture of proper temperature with bii^hter light; the 



