CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



of this no more, but that it is observed, that the old 

 or very great Pikes have in them more of state than 

 goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized Pikes being by 

 the most, and choicest, palates observed to be the best 

 meat : and, contrary, the Eel is observed to be the bet- 

 ter, for age and bigness. 



All Pikes that live long, prove chargeable to 

 their keepers, because their life is maintained by 

 the death of so many other fish, even those of their 

 own kind : which has made him, by some writers, 

 to be called the tyrant of the rivers, or the fresh- 

 water wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devour- 

 ing disposition; which is so keen that, as Gesiier 

 relates, A man going to a pond, where it seems a 

 Pike had devoured all the fish, to water his mule, 

 had a Pike bit his mule by the lips; to which .the 

 Pike hung so fast, that the mule drew him out of the 

 water ; arid by that accident, the owner of the mule 

 angled out the Pike. And the same Gesner observes, 

 that a maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the 

 foot as she was washing clothes in a pond. And 

 I have heard the like of a woman in Killingworth 

 pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been as- 

 sured by my friend Mr. Seagrave, of whom I spake 

 to you formerly, that keeps tame Otters, That he 

 hath known a Pike, in extreme hunger, fight with 

 one of his Otters for a Carp that the Otter had 

 caught, and was then bringing out of the water. 

 1 have told you who relate these things ; and tell 

 you they are 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*." 



* Bowiker, 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. 



