MONSTER FISH. 75 



not exceed seventeen pounds in weight ; but more than one 

 fish of twenty-five pounds weight was captured by my people. 

 During my stay in Sweden, I never heard of any weighing- 

 more than fifty pounds, and these were caught in the 

 Wenern, a fact which, considering the great size of some of 

 the lakes, and knowing that heavier fish have been met with 

 in Britain, surprised me. That monsters, however, do exist 

 in the Scandinavian waters, I have no doubt. A fisherman 

 at Frugard assured me, for instance, that in 1848 he had a 

 pike on his night-line, which certainly was four feet in 

 length, and could not have weighed less than eighty pounds. 

 Five several times he had the fish up to the gunwale of the 

 punt, but owing to the line getting entangled, it at length 

 broke its hold and escaped. Another peasant affirmed to me 

 that, when on one occasion he was spearing fish by torch- 

 light, he fell in with so immense a pike, resembling, as he 

 said, the trunk of a tree, that he was actually afraid to 

 attack it. Though there may be exaggeration, there is pro- 

 bably much truth in these and similar relations, of which 

 hundreds are in circulation. 



A notion prevails in Sweden, as observed in the " Northern 

 Sports," that at certain times the pike, from the peculiar state 

 of its gums, is incapable of feeding in its usual mode, if even 

 at all. Since that work appeared, M. Ekstrom has favoured 

 us with some remarks on the subject, the substance of which 

 may not be without interest to the naturalist. 



Fishermen, in general, he tells us, believe that the pike at 

 certain periods is altogether disinclined att taga svalg, that 

 is, to gorge the bait ; and that at others, on the contrary, 

 he is more than usually voracious. These periods occur 

 regularly, so that an observant person is thus enabled to 



