THE PIKE OF FACT 17 



was that there was no evidence, which could be 

 considered beyond dispute, of any pike of modem 

 times that exceeded the weight of 40 Ib. 



There is a' good deal of circumstantial evidence, 

 however, to warrant one in believing that fish of 50 Ib. 

 or 60 Ib. do exist, and will some day be clearly pro- 

 duced. There must be some leviathans in the loughs 

 of Ireland. There have been such often reported from 

 that country, but attempts to sift the rumours always 

 leave some uncomfortable gap in the evidence. When 

 one reads an airy statement that there was a Qo-lb. 

 pike taken in Ireland many years ago, the only 

 evidence being that of the narrator who says he saw 

 the fish weighed and that it brought the scales down 

 at this weight, one's duty is to put it aside as a thing 

 possible but not probable. 



Two or three years ago there was what seemed to 

 be a categorical story of a 53-lb. pike that had been 

 caught as usual across St. George's Channel. Evidence 

 was invited as to details of the capture, with special 

 reference to (i) where was the fish weighed? (2) how 

 was it weighed ? and (3) who witnessed the weighing ? 

 To none of these questions was there a satisfactory 

 answer, and, in a word, the generality of large pike 

 are found upon inquiry to be of this dubious category. 

 Lord Inverurie begins his list with a fish of 49-^ Ib. 



c 



