THE PIKE. 285 



Old Barker, a rare good fisherman, in his "Art of 

 Angling/' gives the following for killing a pike : 



" A rod twelve feet long, and a ring of wire, 

 A winder and barrel, will help thy desire 

 In killing a pike ; but the forked stick, 

 With a slit and a bladder, and that other fine trick 

 Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck, 

 Will kill two for one, if you have any luck. 

 The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile 

 To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile. 

 When pike suns himself, and a frogging doth go, 

 The two-inched hook is better, I know, 

 Than the ord'nary snaring. But still I must cry, 

 When the pike is at home, mind the cookery." 



