CHAP. VIIL] THE FOURTH D Ay. 131 



persons of credit ; and shall conclude this observation, by telling 

 you, what a wise man has observed, " It is a hard thing to persuade 

 the belly, because it has no ears." * 



But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be 

 doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind that shall 

 be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swallow a part 

 of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till the 

 swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that other part that 

 was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees ; which is not 

 unlike the Ox, and some other beasts taking their meat, not out 

 of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into some place 

 betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees after, which is 

 called chewing the cud. And, doubtless, Pikes will bite when they 

 are not hungry ; but, as some think, even for very anger, when a 

 tempting bait comes near to them. 



And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venomous things, as 

 some kind of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed by them ; 

 for, as some say, he has in him a natural balsam, or antidote 

 against all poison. And he has a strange heat, that though 

 it appear to us to be cold, can yet digest or put over any fish-flesh, 

 by degrees, without being sick. And others observe, that he 

 never eats the venomous frog till he have first killed her, and then 

 as ducks are observed to do to frogs in spawning-time, at which 



* Bowlker, in his Art of Angling before cited, page 9, gives the following instance 

 of the exceeding voracity of this fish : " My father catched a Pike in Barn-Meer (a large 

 standing-water in Cheshire), was an ell long, and weighed thirty-five pounds, which he 

 brought to the Lord Cholmondeley ; his lordship ordered it to be turned into a canal in 

 the garden, wherein were abundance of several sorts of fish. About twelve months 

 after, his lordship draw'd the canal, and found that this overgrown Pike had devoured 

 all the fish, except one large Carp, that weighed between nine and ten pounds, and that 

 was bitten in several places. The Pike was then put into the canal again, together with 

 abundance of fish with him to feed upon, all which he devoured in less than a year's 

 time ; and was observed by the gardener and workmen there, to take the ducks, and 

 other water-fowl, under water. Whereupon they shot magpies and crows, and threw 

 them into the canal, which the Pike took before their eyes : of this they acquainted their 

 lord ; who, thereupon, ordered the slaughterman to fling in calves-bellies, chickens-guts, 

 and suchlike garbage to him, to prey upon : but being soon after neglected, he died, 

 as supposed, for want of food." 



The following relation was inserted as an article of news in one of the London papers, 

 ad Jan. 1755: 



Extract of a Letter from Littleport, Dec. 17. 



"About ten davs ago, a large Pike was caught in the river Ouse, which weighed up- 

 wards of 28 pounds, and was sold to a gentleman in the neighbourhood for a guinea. As 

 the cook-maid was gutting the fish, she found, to her great astonishment, a watch with a 

 black ribbon and two steel seals annexed, in the body of the Pike : the gentleman's butler, 

 upon opening the watch, found the maker's name, Thomas Cranefield, Burnham, Norfolk. 

 Upon a strict inquiry, it appears that the said watch was sold to a gentleman's servant, 

 who was unfortunately drowned about six weeks ago, in his way to Cambridge, between 

 this place and South-Ferry. The watch is still in the possession of Mr John Roberts, 

 at the Cross-Keys in Littleport, for the inspection of the public." 



In Dr Plot's History of Staffordshire, 246, are sundry relations of Pike of great 

 magnitude ; one in particular, caught in the Thame, an ell and two inches long. 



