PIKE, PERCH, BREAM, AND ROACH 133 



prefer a pike to a trout any day for sport or 

 for eating. In certain waters the different 

 traits of pike are as well known as those of 

 the anglers who fish for them ; and the method 

 for their capture in one place will not do for 

 another, as everything depends on the parti- 

 cular locality. Pond pike, unless a stream runs 

 through the water, I do not care about ; but 

 if the run or runs, which supply water to the 

 pond, be all right, you are likely, if only you 

 can obtain permission to fish there, to get some- 

 thing that is really worth the trouble of carrying 

 home. Leave is, however, now thought to be 

 so great a favour that in some places no angler 

 of independent spirit would dream of laying 

 himself under the fisher's obligation. Most fear- 

 ful and wonderful are the "consnaptions," as he 

 calls his contrivances, by which a fisher, whom 

 I well know, endeavours to lure the wily pike 

 to sudden death, and sometimes his " consnap- 

 tions" prove of little avail. Where waters are 

 stocked for the express purpose of fishing them, 

 pike are so numerous that they will take nearly 

 any bait that is offered, but this they will not 

 do where they have free range. If at certain 

 times a ferocious fish, the pike is never a stupid 

 one ; and any little novelty, something that he 



