236 THE PIKE. 



In our own country, however, it seems that no fish of the kind 

 has ever approached to any thing like the gigantic dimensions of 

 the mighty pike above alluded to, fifty pounds weight being with 

 us considered a very unusual size, though instances have occurred 

 of some pike having been taken that exceeded it. Some of the 

 Irish waters produce pike of a very large size : one immense one 

 was caught abought two and twenty years ago, in a small creek 

 running into the river Shannon, into which the tyrant of the 

 stream having followed a shoal of perch that had there sought re- 

 fuge in the shallow water; like a man of war pursuing a chance of 

 a small craft, with more eagerness than judgment, had managed 

 to run himself hard and fast aground, in which state, unable to 

 flounder back again into deep water, he was discovered by two gen- 

 tlemen who were walking on the bank of the river, and who were 

 attracted to the spot by the noise the pike made in splashing about 

 the water in his vain attempts to get himself afloat again. The 

 gentlemen forthwith opened their battery upon him, and by means 

 of an oar that by accident was lying near, soon effectually silenced 

 him. Oftt of curiosity at his extraordinary magnitude his captors 

 had him weighed, when he was found to exceed ninety two pounds. 



When carried across the oar by the two gentlemen, neither of 

 whom were short, the head and tail actually touched the ground. 



This enormous pike was presented by the captors to the then 

 Marquis of Clanricarde, at Portumna ca&tle, with whom they were 

 then visiting. 



A very large pike was taken in trolling by that renowned sports- 

 man the late Colonel Thornton, in Loch Patuliche, in Scotland, 

 which only wanted two ounces of 50 Ibs. From eye to fork this 

 fish was four feet one inch, extreme length four feet nine inches ; 

 depth eleven inches and a half. An excellent engraving of this 

 noble fish may be found in Daniel's Rural Sports, where an account 

 of his capture is related, by which it appears that he was an hour 

 and a half upon the line before he submitted to his fate : nor 

 would the tackle have held him although purposely prepared for 

 large fish, had not the colonel been in a boat and so enabled to 

 humour the pike's struggles to escape. Upon the belly was a 

 mark from a wound, from whence was taken a hook he had broken 

 away with ten years before (from a person who ascertained the 

 fact,) and which had then worked itself through the skin. Daniel 

 states in a note that in the " Sporting Tour," this fish is said to 



