JAWS OF PIKE. 



105 



verging spikes, its doom is sealed, especially as there is a heavy 

 log of wood attached to the trap by a rope. 



ON the left hand of the illustration are two examples of the 

 same principle taken from Nature, one belonging to fresh and 

 the other to salt water. 



The upper figure represents the jaws of a Pike, with their 

 terrible array of reverted teeth. The Pike, as every one knows, 



I'IKE-JAWS. SHARK-JAWS. 



CATCHPOLL. DEER-TRAP. 



feeds upon other fish, and eats them in a curious manner. It 

 darts at them furiously, and generally catches them in the 

 middle of the body. After holding them for a time, for the 

 purpose, as I imagine, of disabling them, it loosens its hold, 

 makes another snap, seizes the fish by the head, and swallows it. 



The Pike is so voracious that it will attack and eat fish not 

 very much smaller than itself, for its digestion is so rapid that 

 the head and shoulders of a swallowed fish have been found to 

 be half digested, while the tail was sticking out of the Pike's 

 mouth. Unless, therefore, the teeth of the Pike were so formed 

 as to resist any retrograde movement on the part of the prey, the 

 fish would starve ; for, lank and lean as it is, the Pike is one of 

 the most voracious creatures in existence, never seeming able 

 to get enough to eat, and yet, as is often found in such cases, 

 capable of sustaining a lengthened fast. 



How well adapted is this arrangement of teeth for prevent- 

 ing the escape of prey, any one can tell who, in his early days 

 of angling, caught a Pike, and, after killing it, tried to extract 

 the hook without previously propping the jaws open. If once 



