THE FOURTH DAY continued 

 On the Luce or Pike 



CHAPTER VIII 



PISCATOR AND VENATOR 



PlSCATOR. The mighty Luce or Pike is taken to 

 be the tyrant, as the Salmon is the king, of the 

 fresh water. 'Tis not to be doubted, but that 

 they are bred, some by generation, and some 'not ; 

 as namely, of a weed called pickerel-weed, unless 

 learned Gesner be much mistaken, for he says, "this 

 weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of 

 the sun's heat, in some particular months, and some 

 ponds, apted for it by nature, do become Pikes. 

 But, doubtless, divers Pikes' are bred after this 

 manner, or are brought into some ponds some such 

 other ways as is past man's finding out, of which 

 we have daily testimonies. 



Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and 

 Death, observes the Pike to be the longest lived 

 of any fresh-water fish ; and yet he computes it to 

 be not usually above forty years ; and others think 

 it to be not above ten years : and yet Gesner men- 

 tions a Pike taken in Swedeland, in the year 1449, 

 with a ring about his neck, declaring he was put 

 into that pond by Frederick the Second, more than 

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