THE SALMON. 359 



It has been known to attack a man when its retreat has been 

 cut off ; to bite the legs of bathers, and to snap at the fingers 

 of persons cooling their hands in the water ; and when pressed 

 with hunger, to fight an otter for the possession of a carp, 

 which the latter had caught. Its strength and endurance have 

 often been demonstrated in the destruction of strong tackle and 

 in its power to survive, without apparent inconvenience with 

 hooks and wires mingling with its anatomy. Captain Brown 

 gives an instance of a pike being caught, which had a strong 

 piece of twisted wire projecting from its side. It was in excel- 

 lent condition, and on being opened, discovered in its stomach 

 a double eel hook, much corroded, and attached to the pro- 

 truding wire. Another pike when caught, in the river Ouse, 

 was found in possession of a watch with a black ribbon and 

 seals attached ; property which it was afterwards discovered had 

 belonged to a gentleman's servant who had been drowned. 

 The pike has often been caught with portions of tackle broken 

 from the line in former engagements hanging from the mouth. 

 Its rapacity is extraordinary. Eight- hundred gudgeon are said 

 to have been consumed in three weeks by eight pike of not 

 more than five pounds weight each. " The appetite of one 

 of my pike," says Mr. Jesse, " was almost insatiable. One 

 morning I threw to him one after the other, five roach, each 

 about four inches in length. He swallowed four of them, and 

 kept the fifth in his mouth for about a quarter of an hour, 

 when it also disappeared." The pike attains to large propor- 

 tions and to a great age. When less than two pounds weight 

 it is called a jack, but it has been known to attain to sixty or 

 seventy pounds weight, and if all records be true, to more than 

 a hundred years of age. Gesner mentions a pike caught in 

 standing water at Heilbroon, in Suabia in 1497 which had a 

 ring round its head with an inscription in Greek which ran 

 somewhat as follows : " I am the first fish that was launched 

 into this pond, and was thrown in by Frederick the Second, 

 emperor of the Romans, on the fifth of October, 1230." If 



