VORACITY OF THE PIKE. 117 



or other " trimmer;" and we have known the jocund 

 rustics of the Till amuse themselves by fastening a 

 small trout to a duck's leg and making it swim 

 through a deadly haunt of the fresh- water shark, a 

 furious struggle ensuing, if a pike took hold, as to 

 whether the fowl was to be drawn under water or the 

 fish drawn out of it. We believe there have been in- 

 stances of the duck being drowned, although finally 

 the pike also was exhausted and taken. We cannot 

 speak from personal experience of fly-fishing for pike, 

 but believe that it may be practised successfully in 

 windy weather. The fly is a bulky affair, nearly as 

 large as a wren, the principal feature in its composition 

 being two of the transformed eyes of the unfortunate 

 Argus which adorn the peacock's tail. The pike, in- 

 deed, will seize anything is fond of ducklings, al- 

 though we never heard of anybody fishing with them 

 and, when other fare is not to be had, will, like a 

 hungry fisher (as indeed he is), sup off a bit of Tibbie 

 Shiels's bacon or mutton-ham if offered to him. A 

 frog is a capital bait, and it is while instructing his 

 pupil as to the way of putting a live frog upon the hook, 

 so that it may live longest, that Isaak Walton recom- 

 mends Venator to " use him as though he loved him! " 

 We shall not, on the present occasion, enter upon any 

 exposition or defence of live-bait fishing, but shall 

 merely remark that many moral philosophers have 

 been particularly addicted to it and what finer moral- 

 ist than old Izaak himself ever lived ? Yet we would 

 rather that he had not used that phrase. 



The pike in these lochs are large, and, we believe, 

 of good quality. At one time they were chiefly con- 



