1 68 WA TERSIDE SKETCHES. 



yet have not protected him with licence. Finally, to stop 

 short in an enumeration which might easily be extended, he 

 is, numerous assertions notwithstanding, worthy of respect as 

 an article of food. It might be urged that his appearance, 

 his wolfish eyes and sharkish jaws, are against him ; but 

 what would become of us, good reader, if we were each and 

 all judged by our looks ? Besides, I have said enough to 

 prove how and why the pike should be every angler's 

 game. 



Think kindly of Esox Lucius, if only for the quaint stories 

 ay, and truly wonderful stories to which he has from 

 time immemorial given rise. It has been said that he is 

 bred from weeds by the help of the sun's heat; that men 

 and maids have been attacked by him ; that he has lived 

 through two generations ; that he flies at mules coming 

 down to drink, and maintains a bull-dog grip until, dragged 

 out, the animal's owner takes him off; that he has fought 

 duels with otters for carp captured by the latter; that he 

 possesses a natural balsam or antidote against all poison ; 

 that a watch with a ribbon and two seals attached has been 

 taken by an astonished cook out of his capacious maw ; 

 that in a pool about nine yards deep, which had not been 

 fished for ages, a pike was, amidst hundreds of spectators, 

 drawn out by a rope fastened round his head and gills, 

 which pike weighed one hundred and seventy pounds, and had 

 previously pulled the clerk of the parish into the water ; 

 that fox cubs and waterfowl have been received at one fell 

 bolt into his ravenous gullet. 



This and more also, is it not written in that best of all 

 Waltonian chronicles the edition enriched by the experience 

 of "Ephemera"? And it is hard to say what is true and 



