306 Pike-Fishing. 



tion says was put into the Kaiserwag lake by one 

 of the German emperors in 1230, and was captured 

 in 1497, having thus escaped the snares of genera- 

 tions of anglers for two hundred and sixty-seven 

 years. But our confidence in the veracity of the 

 old writers is not strengthened on learning that, 

 some years ago, a clever naturalist discovered that 

 the skeleton of this patriarchal pike, which meas- 

 ured 19 feet, had evidently been tampered with. 

 Whatever amount of truth there is as to the age 

 of the Mannheim fish, there is no doubt that a 

 pike, under even ordinary conditions of existence, 

 attains to formidable proportions ; and seeing that 

 its powers of digestion are quite in keeping with its 

 capacity for swallowing, there is no saying what 

 gigantic dimensions it might reach, if circumstances 

 were exceptionally favourable. All who have ex- 

 perience in the rearing of this fish can have no 

 difficulty in agreeing with Walton, that " pikes that 

 live long prove chargeable to their keepers." 



Pike weighing from 8 Ib. to 12 Ib. are common 

 in the Clyde near Lanark. On one occasion I 

 killed a fish 12 Ib. in weight with my loop-rod. 

 The largest that I have seen caught in that river 

 scaled 24 Ib., but I believe that fish of 40 Ib. are to 

 be found in it. The biggest that came under Mr 

 Buckland's observation was one of 36 Ib. ; but pike 

 attain a greater weight than this in the lochs of 



