300 A HISTORY OF 



petition with the ravages of a conqueror ! However, the pike wii 

 attack every fish less than itself; and it is sometimes seen choaked, 

 by attempting to swallow such as are too large a morsel. It is im- 

 material of what species the animal it pursues appears to be, whether 

 oi another or its own, all are indiscriminately devoured ; so that every 

 fish owes its safety to its minuteness, its celerity, or its courage : nor 

 does the pike confine itself to feed on fish and frogs; it will draw 

 down the water-rat and the young ducks, as they are swimming 

 about. Gesner tells us of a mule that stopped to drink in the water, 

 when a famished pike, that was near, seized it by the nose, nor was 

 it disengaged till the beast flung it on shore. So great is their rapa- 

 city, that they will contend with the otter for his prey, and even en- 

 deavour to force it from him. For this reason it is dreaded by all 

 other fish ; and the small ones show the same uneasiness and detesta- 

 tion at the presence of their tyrant, as the little birds do at the sight 

 of a hawk or an owl. When the pike lies asleep near the surface, as 

 is freouently the case, the lesser fish are observed to swim around it 

 in vast numbers, with a mixture of caution and terror. 



The other tribes of fresh-water fish are much inferior to this ani- 

 mal in courage and rapacity : they chiefly subsist upon worms and 

 insects, pursuing-them at the bottom, or jumping after them to the 

 surface of the water. In winter also, their appetites seem entirely to 

 forsake them ; at least they continue in so torpid a state, that few 

 baits will tempt them to their destruction. At that season, they for- 

 sake the shallow water, and seek those deep holes to be found in 

 every river, where they continue for days together, without ever ap- 

 pearing to move. The cold seems to affect them ; for at that time 

 they lie close to the bottom, where the water is most warm, and sel- 

 dom venture out, except the day be peculiarly fine, and the shallows 

 at the edges of the stream become tepified by the powerful rays of the 

 sun. Indeed, I have been assured, that some fishes may be rendered 

 so torpid by the cold, in the northern rivers, as to be frozen up, in 

 the great masses of ice, in which they continue for several months 

 together, seemingly without life or sensation, the prisoners of conge- 

 lation, and waiting the approach of a warmer sun, to restore them at 

 once to life and liberty. Thus that cheerful luminary not only dis- 

 tributes health and vegetation to the productions of the earth, but is 

 ardently sought even by the gelid inhabitants of the water. 



As fish are enemies one to another, so each species is infested with 

 worms of different kinds, peculiar to itself. The great fish abound 

 with them ; and the little ones are not entirely free. These trouble- 

 some vermin lodge themselves either in the jaws, and the intestines 

 internally, or near the fins without. When fish are healthy and fat 

 they are not much annoyed by them ; but in winter, when they are 

 lean or sickly, they then suffer very much. 



Nor does the reputed longevity of this class secure them from their 

 peculiar disorders. They are not only affected by too much cold, but 

 there are frequently certain dispositions of the element in which they 

 reside unfavourable to thsir health and propagation. Some ponds 

 they will not breed in, however artfully disposed for supplying them 

 with fresh recruits of water, as well as provision. In some seasons 

 they are found to feel epidemic disorders and -e seen dead by the 



