896 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 



into that lake in 1230, places the former almost in a state of 

 infancy, and is said to hav^ weighed 350 libs. 



Pike has always been remarkable for extraordinary vo- 

 racity. Mr. Jesse says, " Eight pike, of about five pounds 

 weight each, consumed nearly eight hundred gudgeons, in 

 three weeks ; and the appetite of one of these pike,^' says 

 My. Jesse, " was almost insatiable. One morning I threw to 

 him, one after another, five roach, each about four inches 

 in length ; he swallowed four of them, and kept the fifth in 

 his mouth for about a quarter of an hour, when it also dis- 

 appeared." Digestion in the pike goes on rapidly, and they 

 are, therefore, a most expensive fish to maintain. In default 

 of a sufficient quantity of fishes to satisfy them, moor-hens, 

 ducks, and indeed any animals of small size, whether dead 

 or alive, are constantly consumed ; their boldness and vora- 

 city are equally proverbial. 



Among the various localities in England for both the quality 

 and quantity of their pike, may be mentioned Horsea Mere, 

 and lligham Sounds, two large pieces of water in the county of 

 Norfolk, a few miles north of Yarmouth. Mr. Yarrell says, 

 " I am favoured by a gentleman of acknowledged celebrity in 

 field-sports, with the returns of four days' pike-fishing with 

 trimmers — or liggers, as they are provincially called — in 

 March, 1834, in the waters just named, viz. : on the 11th, at 

 Highham Sounds, sixty pike, the weight altogether two hun- 

 dred and eighty pounds ; on the 13 th, at Horsea Mere, eighty- 

 nine pike, three hundred and seventy-nine pounds ; on the 

 18th, again at Horsea Mere, forty-nine pike, two hundred and 

 sixty-three pounds; on the 19th, at Higham Sounds, fifty- 

 eight pike, two hundred and sixty-three pounds ; together, 

 four days' sport, producing two hundred and fifty-six pike, 

 weighing altogether eleven hundred and thirty-five pounds. 

 Pike have been killed in Horsea Mere, weighing thirty-four 



