Pike and Carp. 183 



ridiculed than for saying that some pike 

 are bred of a weed called Pickerel-weed,, 

 and yet the statement is not his ; he merely 

 says it is so "unless learned Gesner be 

 much mistaken." His description of the 

 nature and habits of this fish is excellent, \ 

 and his stories about it, both native and \ 

 foreign, most interesting, and quite equal 

 to the best of our modern fish tales. His 

 directions for killing pike with a live bait 

 might be followed with advantage by 

 keepers on trout preserves where pike 

 have to be kept down. As Dr. Bethune 

 says, " Walton understood the pike well." 



Chapter IX. deals with the carp and^ 

 " how to fish for him." Here, again, one ot"} 

 Walton's fish stories i.e., that of the carp 

 beihgluired by the- frogs has proved to be 

 a true bill, full details of such killing being ; 

 given a few years ago in the columns of 

 Die Deutsche Fischerei Zeitung. Walton 

 rightly calls the carp " a stately, a good, 

 and a very subtil fish." In some rivers 

 and in some ponds I have experienced 

 the truth of his statement that the carp 

 is " very hard to take " ; in others he bites 

 freely enough at any of the many excellent 

 baits given by Walton, who, among other 

 " tips," mentions the advantage of putting 

 a bit of scarlet cloth soaked in Oyl of 

 Peter, called by some Oyl of the Rock, on 



