COMMON PIKE. 103 



served to swim around in vast numbers, and in the 

 greatest anxiety. In the ditches near the Thames 

 Pike are often haltered in a noose, and taken while 

 they lie thus asleep, as they are frequently found in 

 the month of May. 



The longevity of the Pike is very remarkable, i 

 as Mr. Pennant observes, we may credit the ac- 

 counts given by authors. Rzaczynski in his Natural 

 History of Poland tells us of one that was ninety 

 years old ; but Gesner relates that in the year 

 1497, a Pike was taken near Hailburn in Suabia, 

 with a brazen ring affixed to it, on which were 

 these words in Greek characters. " I am the fish 

 which was first of all put into this lake by the 

 hands of the Governor of the Universe Frederick 

 the second, the fifth of October 1230,'' so that, 

 adds Mr. Pennant, the former must have been an 

 infant to this Mathusalem of a fish. 



The Pike spawns in March and April, according 

 to the warmth or coldness of the season ; deposit- 

 ing its ova among the weeds, &c. near the water's 

 edge : the young are said to be of very quick 

 growth : indeed Bloch considers it as the quickest 

 grower of all the European fishes whose progress he 

 has had an opportunity of observing. The first year, 

 according to this author, it arrives at the length of 

 from six to ten inches; the second to twelve or 

 fourteen ; and the third to eighteen or twenty. 

 The stomach of the Pike is strong and muscular 

 and of very considerable length : it is also furnished 

 with several large and red pleats : in the intestinal 

 canal have been observed several kinds of worms 



