3O2 Pike-Fishing. 



over the trembling finny tribe, and lays them under 

 heavy contribution to supply his great and fre- 

 quent needs. No one enjoys immunity from his 

 rapacity, except, perhaps, the tench. Towards that 

 " physician of fishes," if report does not lie, he 

 magnanimously displays his " only virtue." Writers 

 on fish and fishing have, in all ages, expatiated 

 on his ravenous disposition; and even the poets, 

 who have a good word to say for the trout and the 

 salmon, have none for poor Jack. So long ago as 

 the fourth century of our era, the Latin poet 

 Ausonius branded him as 



' ' The wary Luce, 'midst wrack and rushes hid, 

 The scourge and terror of the scaly brood ; " 



and the muse has hurled hard epithets at him ever 

 since. With one, he is " the tyrant of the watery 

 plains " ; with another, " the dispeople! of the 

 lake " ; with a third, " a mercenary." There is 

 no possibility that his character has been calum- 

 niated : 



" His greedy appetite will leave your doubts behind." 



But the attentions of the pike are not by any 

 means limited to the " scaly brood." Eeptiles, 

 rats, and fowls, alike may claim his regard, if they 

 unfortunately catch his eye, and come within range 

 of his terrible teeth those " serried pikes," that 

 forbid all thought of hope. Even the higher mam- 



