CHAPTER VIII 



Jack or Pike? Our Doctor steals a Day The Duck Shoot 



Is there anyone who can say definitely at what 

 period of its life or at what stage of its growth a 

 jack should be deemed worthy to be called a pike ? 

 The general answer to this ever-recurring question 

 is: "Well! I call the little ones 'jack' and the 

 big ones ' pike.' ' It must be quite forty years since 

 I was first so answered. I had recently been 

 elected President of a London Angling Society ; I 

 don't know why I was elected, but I remember that 

 I gave such satisfaction to a member that he 

 proposed my re-election, and, while doing so, said 

 he felt sure that members generally would agree 

 with him that I had fulfilled the duties of the 

 position to the best of my "debility." The roars 

 of laughter that greeted this caused the speaker to 

 be at a loss for the word he desired to substitute, 

 and the suggestions that were showered upon him by 

 his brother members could only make his confusion 

 worse confounded, so no wonder that his next attempt 

 was as funny as his first. He laughed himself. 



It was while filling this office that I learnt it to be 

 infra dig., indeed most scathing, to call a brother 

 member's jack a ' pike ' unless its size was some- 

 thing considerable. Efforts were made by dis- 

 cussions, resolutions, and amendments to fix a 

 weight that should divide the names. A member, 



90 



