130 AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



which the cook found a black ribband and keys. Quoting 

 Dodsley's Eegister, 1765, he says: "In emptying a pool 

 which had not been fished for ages, at Lilleshall Lime Works 

 near New Port, an enormous Pike was found, weighing one 

 hundred and seventy pounds." 



It is said that Pikes will eat all the smaller fish in a con- 

 fined pond, and then the larger will devour the smaller, until 

 at last only the largest remains, a solitary proprietor of the 

 domain. 



After being so amiable as to quote the foregoing "fish 

 stories," without openly expressing a doubt as to the truth of 

 them, it would hardly be fair in the reader to doubt the story 

 of a large Pike on a subsequent page, which was told to me 

 by the hostler of a hotel in Wheeling, twenty years ago. 



The term " Pickerel" is applied to all fish of this genus, 

 with the exception of the Mascalonge, by the people of New 

 York and the Eastern States. In the Middle States they are 

 called " Pike," and in Virginia and further South they go by 

 the name of " Jackfish." 



