336 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



eties of Esox mentioned there is another which 

 is common to all suitable waters of North 

 America, Europe and Asia. That is Esox Lu- 

 cius, as Linnaeus named him, the common pike. 

 This fish is very like the pond pickerel in appear- 

 ance and he sometimes grows to weigh forty 

 pounds or more and to a length of four feet. 

 Such a one might well be too large to come up 

 through the hole which the fishermen have cut 

 for his little cousins, the brook pickerel. It is 

 quite possible that one of these Jonah-swallowing 

 leviathans rules the pickerel in each pond king- 

 dom, like a Morgan among millionaires. Of the 

 pike, which he loved well, Isaac Walton has much 

 to say and I cannot refrain from quoting a few 

 of his most loving phrases, which are those which 

 tell how he should be cooked. 



"Keep his liver," he says, "which you are to 

 shred very small with .thyme, sweet marjoram 

 and a little winter savory; to these put some 

 pickled oysters and some anchovies, two or three ; 

 both these last whole, for the anchovies will melt, 

 and the oysters should not; to these you must 

 add also a pound of sweet butter which you are 

 to mix with the herbs that are shred, and let them 



