jFourti) 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OBSERVATIONS OF THE LUCE, OR PIKE, WITH 

 DIRECTIONS HOW TO FISH FOR HIM. 



pISCATOR. The mighty luce, or pike, is taken 

 to be the tyrant, as the salmon is the king, of 

 the fresh waters. 'T is not to be doubted but 

 that they are bred some by generation and some 

 not, as namely of a weed called pickerel-weed, 

 unless learned Gesner be much mistaken ; for he 

 says this weed and other glutinous matter, with 

 the help of the sun's heat in some particular 

 months, and some ponds adapted for it by nature, 

 do become pikes. But, doubtless, divers pikes 

 are bred after this manner, or are brought into 

 some ponds some such other ways as are past 

 man's finding out, of which we have daily 

 testimonies. 



Sir Francis Bacon, in his " History of Life and 

 Death," observes the pike to be the longest-lived 

 of any fresh-water fish, and yet he computes it to 

 be not usually above forty years, and others think 

 it to be not above ten years ; and yet Gesner men- 

 tions a pike taken in Swedeland in the year 1449, 

 with a ring about his neck declaring he was put 



