Colonel ftbomas ZTbornton 69 



carefully opened, and the contents of his stomach be 

 reserved for inspection, . . . which to our surprise consisted 

 of part of another pike half digested. The tumour or 

 bag arose from his having, no doubt many years since, 

 gorged a hook, which seemed to us better calculated for 

 sea than for fresh-water fishing. It was wonderfully 

 honey-combed, but free from rust, so that I cannot doubt 

 its having been at least ten years in his belly. . . . 



The weight of this fish, judging by the trones we had 

 with us, which only weigh twenty-nine pounds, made 

 us, according to our best opinions, estimate him at 

 between forty-seven and forty-eight pounds. I had 

 before this seen pike of thirty-six pounds, and have had 

 them at Thornville of above thirty ; but the addition of 

 seventeen pounds and a half made this quite a different 

 fish. There may be larger pike, but I cannot readily 

 credit the accounts of such until I receive more authentic 

 information." 



The Colonel would no doubt have been surprised 

 to learn that his 4/-lb. pike was after all but an 

 infant compared with the celebrated Kenmure pike, 

 taken in Loch Ken, Galloway, the head of which is 

 still preserved at Kenmure Castle ; the weight of 

 this leviathan was 72 Ibs. But this, again, takes a 

 back seat by comparison with two captured in Ireland : 

 one on the Broad Wood Lake, Killaloe, weighing 

 96 Ibs.; the other in the Shannon, weighing 90 Ibs. 

 Beyond that limit one would have thought that no pike 

 that romance ever conceived could have passed. Yet 

 Sir John Hawkins, a credible person, and as the 

 author of " The General History of Music " entitled to 



