COMMON PIKE. 101 



Schaeffer, are sometimes eight feet in length : they 

 are taken there in great abundance, dried, and ex- 

 ported for sale. The largest specimen of English 

 growth is said by Mr. Pennant to have weighed 

 thirty-five pounds. The head of the Pike is very 

 flat ; the upper jaw broad, and shorter than the 

 lower, which turns up a little at the end, and is 

 marked with minute punctures : the teeth are very 

 sharp, disposed only in front of the upper jaw, but 

 in both sides of the lower, as well as in the roof of 

 the mouth, and often on the tongue : the number, 

 according to Bloch, is not less than seven hundred, 

 without reckoning the farthest of all or those 

 nearest the throat : it is also to be observed that 

 those which are situated on the jaws are alternately 

 fixed and moveable : the gape is very wide, and 

 the eyes small : the dorsal fin is placed very low 

 on the back, and consists of twenty-one rays ; the 

 pectoral of fifteen ; the ventral of eleven, and the 

 anal of eighteen : the tail is slightly forked, or 

 rather lunated. The usual colour of this fish is a 

 pale olive-grey, deepest on the back, and marked 

 on the sides by several yellowish spots or patches: 

 the abdomen is white, slightly spotted with black. 

 When in its highest perfection however the colours 

 are frequently more brilliant ; the sides being of 

 a bright olive, with yellow spots, the back dark 

 green, and the belly silvery. Dr. Bloch assures 

 us that in Holland the Pike is sometimes found of 

 an orange-colour, marked with black spots: the 

 scales are rather small, hard, and of an oblong 

 shape. 



