CHAPTER VIII 



Observations of the Luce, or Pike ; with Directions how to 

 Fish for him. 



ISC. The mighty Luce, or Pike, is taken to be 

 the tyrant (as the salmon is the king) of the fresh 

 waters. 'Tis not to be doubted but that they are 

 bred, some by generation, and some not, as namely, 

 of a weed called pickerel weed, unless learned 

 Gesner be much mistaken, for he says this weed 

 and other glutinous matter, with the help of the 

 sun's heat, in some particular months, and some ponds apted for it 

 by nature, do become pikes. But, doubtless, divers pikes are bred 

 after this manner, or are brought into some ponds some such other 

 ways as is past man's finding out, of which we have daily testimonies. 

 Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death ^ observes the 

 pike to be the longest lived of any fresh-water fish ; and yet he 

 computes it to be not usually above forty years ; and others think 

 it to be not above ten years ; and yet Gesner mentions a pike taken 



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