266 FISHING IN AMERICAN WATERS. 



rapidly up and out on the ice, where it is left to freeze. Be- 

 sides the thousands of them transported every winter in a 

 frozen state, many are salted and shipped off in the spring. 

 This trout is the most voracious of all the species, fattening 

 on such delicate luxuries as herrings, ciscos, and whitefish. 



SECTION ELEVENTH. 



AMERICAN PICKEREL, OR PIKE. 



By blue lake marge, upon whose breast 

 The water-lilies love to rest, 

 Lurking beneath those leaves of green 

 The fierce pike seeks his covert screen, 

 And thence with sudden plunge and leap, 

 Swift as a shaft through air may sweep, 

 He seizes, rends, and bears away 

 To hidden lair his struggling prey. 



This fish, like the brook trout, is almost universally known. 

 It inhabits nearly all the waters of the north temperate zone, 

 and varies in appearance according to its food, and the vol- 

 ume and quality of the water in which it is found. ^The large 

 pickerel taken in the St. Lawrence River and in many Cana- 

 dian waters is called by some the " great Northern pike," of 

 the family Esocidce, supposed to be unlike the common pike 

 or pickerel, or Esox Lucius ; but throughout twenty years 1 

 experience at taking pickerel, I have been unable to discover 

 a very marked difference between the Northern pike and the 

 pickerel south of the St. Lawrence. 



AMERICAN PICKEREL, OR PIKE. 



" The pike is the English name of a fish belonging to the 

 order Malacopterygii, section Abdominales, family Esocidae, 

 and genus Esox." 



The pickerel or pike spawns in March and April, and should 

 not be caught between January and July. In England it 



