THE PIKE. 7 



tench, carp, and gold fish, and got half-a-dozen right good 

 jack with the tench as bait; and strange as it may seem, 

 not a single run did he get with the much more brilliant 

 gold fish. Izaak Walton says on this point that " the tench 

 is the physician of fishes, for the pike especially, who for- 

 bears to devour him, be he never so hungr}\" Other old 

 writers have also strongly endorsed this opinion ; saying 

 that the slime or touch of tenches, was a certain cure for 

 wounds, cuts, or ailments in the fishy tribe generally ; and 

 the pike more particularly. But I am sadly afraid this is 

 only an old legend that has not much solid foundation in 

 fact. If it was true, and our jack could reason for himself 

 like a human being, he might spare him, for no man who is 

 in possession of his senses would want to swallow his doctor. 

 I also read some time ago, that a quantity of tench were 

 turned into a lake that contained a lot of ill-conditioned pike 

 as an experiment, and some time afterwards the pike im- 

 proved to a remarkable extent ! but it did not state positively 

 if this result was due to simply the presence of the tench 

 in the water, or whether the increase of condition was due 

 to the supply of fresh food, that was so generously and 

 plentifully at hand in the shape of that stock of tench. The 

 writer rather hinted that he thought it was entirely due to 

 simply the presence of the tench in the water. I am also 

 afraid that this statement is not worth much, for I knew a 

 sheet of water in Nottinghamshire that contained a large 

 quantity of very fine tench, but the few jack that shared 

 the water with them were the ugliest and most ill-conditioned 

 brutes we ever caught. I fancy that for pike to be in good 

 condition depends more on the water they inhabit, and the 

 abundance of natural food in the water with them, than 

 just turning a few tench in. I don't believe that turning a 

 hundred or two of tench in a real bad jack water will im- 

 prove the breed and condition of the latter to any permanent 

 extent. As I said a little while ago, the pike, generally 

 speaking, is a solitary fish, though large ones are often found 

 in pairs. After floods and frosts, or owing to some 

 accidental circumstances, they may sometimes be found 

 collected together in numbers in favourable eddies, or in a 

 backwater away from the main stream, or at the tail end of 



