SIZE AND DIGESTION OF PIKE. 289 



cording to their good or bad condition, which is 

 regulated by food and the season of the year. 



The largest pike I ever saw weighed thirty-four 

 pounds ; but I have seen several each weighing 

 between twenty and thirty pounds. The largest 

 pike recorded to have been killed in the British 

 Islands was one taken in the Shannon, and weigh- 

 ing ninty-two pounds. The head of one weighing 

 seventy-two pounds, and which was caught with 

 an artificial fly, is still to be seen at Kenmore 

 Castle. The celebrated Colonel Thornton asserts 

 that he killed a pike in Loch Alva, Scotland, that 

 weighed fifty pounds within two ounces. I should 

 consider that the largest pike in the empire are to 

 be found in the lakes and lochs of Ireland and 

 Scotland ; and that the greatest numbers are to 

 be found in the meres and ponds of England. 

 The anecdotes of pike are more numerous and as- 

 tonishing than those of any other of our river fish. 

 I do not credit many of them, I believe that pike 

 digest their food in a few minutes, and that in 

 consequence their voracity is prodigious and their 

 growth great. I will recount two or three re- 

 ported instances. In 1801, a hook baited with 

 a roach was set in the manor pond at Toddington, 

 Bedfordshire ; the next morning a large pike was 

 caught, which with difficulty was got out. It 

 appeared that a pike of three and a half pounds 

 weight was first caught, which was afterwards 

 u 



