THE COMPLETE ANGLER 145 



I might say more of this, but it might be thought 

 curiosity or worse, and shall therefore forbear it ; and 

 take up so much of your attention as to tell you, that the 

 best of pikes are noted to be in rivers ; next, those in 

 great ponds or meres ; and the worst, in small ponds. 



But before I proceed farther, I am to tell you, that 

 there is a great antipathy betwixt the pike and some frogs : 

 and this may appear to the reader of Dubravius, a bishop 

 in Bohemia, who, in his book Of Fish and Fish-ponds,* 

 relates what he says he saw with his own eyes, and could 

 not forbear to tell the reader ; which was : 



" As he and the Bishop Thurzo were walking by a large 

 pond in Bohemia, they saw a frog, when the pike lay very 

 sleepily and quiet by the shore side, leap upon his head ; 

 and the frog having expressed malice or anger by his 

 swollen cheeks and staring eyes, did stretch out his legs 

 and embraced the pike's head, and presently reached them 

 to his eyes, tearing with them and his teeth, those tender 

 parts : the pike moved with anguish, moves up and down 

 the water, and rubs himself against weeds and whatever 

 he thought might quit him of his enemy ; but all in vain, 

 for the frog did continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite 

 and torment the pike, till his strength failed, and then 

 the frog sunk with the pike to the bottom of the water ; 

 then presently the frog appeared again at the top and 

 croaked, and seemed to rejoice like a conqueror ; after 

 which he presently retired to his secret hole. The bishop, 

 that had beheld the battle, called his fishermen to fetch 

 his nets, and by all means to get the pike, that they might 

 declare what had happened : and the pike was drawn 

 forth, and both his eyes eaten out ; at which when they 

 began to wonder, the fisherman wished them to forbear, 



abnormal habits and singular instincts of animalia, instead of trying 

 to account for them by facts derived from actual observation. 

 E.] 



* Translated into English in 1599, by George Churchey, of Lyon's 

 Inn. 



