CHAPTER V. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE PIKE, AND HOW TO ANGLE FOR HIM. 



The Pike. 



The pike is most deservedly styled the tyrant, as the salmon is 

 the king of the fresh waters, whom he is often found to equal, 

 if not to exceed in bulk ; whilst like many others whose deaths 

 would be highly beneficial to the community, his life, if unexposed 

 to violence, is an unusually long one. Thus we read of an im- 

 mense pike that was taken at Kaiserslautern, near Manhiem, in 

 Swabia, sometime in the year 1497 ; the weight of which was 

 nearly 350 Ibs, and its age was supposed to be 267 years, as ap- 

 peared from an inscription on a brazen ring round its neck, decla- 

 ring that it was the fish which was first of all put into the lake by 

 the hands of the governor of the universe, Frederick the Second, 

 the 5th day of October, 1230, which inscription, being in Greek, 

 was translated by the then Bishop of Worms. Its skeleton which 

 was long preserved at Manhiem, as a great natural curiosity, was 19 

 feet long a size far exceeding the most exaggerated accounts of 

 any salmon that as yet has appeared on record. A painting of 

 this remarkable fish is also said to be still preserved in the castle 

 of Lautern. The ancients, indeed, seem to have supposed the 

 pike capable of attaining the most incredible magnitude; and 

 Pliny even goes so far as to express an opinion that it might attain 

 the weight of 1000 Ibs. 



