NATURAL FOOD. 31 



proved too large a morsel; and it is well authenticated 

 that in Lord Gower's canal, at Trentham, a pike seized 

 the head of a swan as she was feeding under water, and 

 gorged so much of it as to kill them both. Gesner re- 

 lates, that a pike in the river Rhone seized the lips of 

 a mule while it was drinking, and was in consequence 

 dragged out of the water; and Walton says, " I have 

 been assured by my friend Mr. Seagrave, who keeps 

 tame otters, that he has known a pike in extreme 

 hunger fight with one of his otters for a carp that the 

 otter had caught, and was then bringing out of the 

 water. In December, 1765, a pike was caught in the 

 river Ouse, which weighed about twenty-eight pounds, 

 and , on opening it, a watch with a riband and two seals 

 belonging to a man that had been drowned in the river 

 a month before, were found in its stomach. The most 

 circumstantial details, however, respecting the voracity 

 of the pike, are given by Bowlker. 



" My father," says he, " caught a pike in Barn- Mere, 

 a large standing water in Cheshire, an ell long, and 

 thirty-five pounds weight, which he brought to Lord 

 Cholmondeley. His Lordship ordered it to be turned 

 into a canal in the garden, wherein were abundance 

 of several sorts of fish. About twelve months after 

 his lordship drew the canal, and found that this over- 

 grown pike had devoured all the lish, except one large 

 carp that weighed between nine and ten pounds, and 

 that was bitten in several places. The pike was 

 then put into the canal again, together with abundance 

 of fish with him to feed upon, all which he devoured 

 in less than a year's time, and he was observed by the 



