304 Pike-Fishing. 



is of opinion that in this, and in other cases, the 

 " accident " was caused by the two fish charging 

 simultaneously at the same bait, which, slipping 

 out of the way (like Baron Munchauseu, I suppose, 

 when he was assailed on the one side by a croco- 

 dile, and on the other by a lion), brought on a 

 collision between its foes, and caused the smaller 

 to be impacted in the open mouth of the larger. 

 But in this Mr Buckland shows more consideration 

 for the feelings of the pike than, in their subsequent 

 proceedings, they showed for one another ; for 

 whatever may have been the original impulse 

 which brought them into such close contact 

 with each other, nothing but insatiate appetite of 

 pike for pike can explain the deliberate and re- 

 peated action in the water-tub. What the result 

 would have been had no one interposed, is not diffi- 

 cult to conjecture. Anglers who often find pike 

 in the stomach of pike, have never any doubt as 

 to the manner in which the unfortunate ones get 

 there. Moreover, it is well known that one pike 

 will attempt to devour another of greater bulk than 

 either his throat or his stomach can accommodate, 

 swallow a part of him, and keeping the remainder 

 in his mouth till the first instalment be digested, 

 carry out his original intention by a series of par- 

 tial operations to a full and final result. 



Although the pike has a preference for fish, flesh, 



