THE PIKE OF FACT 



Mention is also made of a somewhat mysterious 

 42-lb. dead pike that was left high and dry ashore on 

 the bursting of a lake in Sussex ; but here again con- 

 vincing details have yet to be supplied. It has come 

 to my knowledge in one or two instances that captors 

 of undoubtedly large fish had urgent reasons for 

 keeping all particulars a secret, and it comes there- 

 fore to this, that 40 Ib. may be put down as a modern 

 maximum, and that there is no reason why the pike 

 should not attain a much greater size, though questions 

 of age and rates of growth are, as might be expected, 

 matters of surmise rather than positive demonstra- 

 tion. 1 



We have, however, kept the pike himself waiting 

 somewhat too long, and may now pass from the realm 

 of legend, fancy, and doubt to that of fact. It would 

 be interesting to know how the Lucius of the ancients 

 acquired the name of ' pike ' in England, or when it 

 was first so called. According to Dr. Day, in Anglo- 



1 When these pages were printed, and just in time to give 

 me the opportunity of a footnote, the Fishing Gazette an- 

 nounced the receipt, from Ireland, of two large pike: (i) 

 40^ Ib., length 50 in., girth 27^ in. ; (2) 35 J Ib., of the same 

 length, but 25! in. girth. The larger fish, however, was full of 

 spawn. The weights were verified in London days after the 

 fish had been taken on lines baited with small perch. Details 

 appear in the Fishing Gazette^ May 19, 1900, and the same 

 issue contains correspondence respecting a 53-lb. pike. W. S. 



