THE PIKE OF FACT 29 



be gently lifted out with the weeds on it, and may be 

 deposited in the pond or lake which needs stocking, or, 

 if preferred, the eggs may remain till they hatch, and 

 then the water and young pike may be syphoned off and 

 removed. May I add one more word ? I would not 

 advise the stocking of any water with pike. I have 

 unfortunately been enabled to realise by experience what 

 a terrible brute he is, and how easily stocking one's 

 water with pike may lead to them getting into other 

 waters where they are not wanted. They may be killed 

 down, but cannot be exterminated. 



The question is suggested on a previous page why 

 in these days, when angling is regarded so much as 

 a sport, and opportunities of general fishing become 

 rarer every year, it would not answer to maintain pike 

 preserves ? How easily water may be stocked with 

 pike was charmingly told by the Rev. Harry Jones in 

 his ' Holiday Papers.' He and his young brother were 

 acquainted with a small deep pond full of tiny perch, 

 which, as is generally the case in such waters, never 

 reached any size. The boys thought they could im- 

 prove upon this state of affairs, and, from the dykes 

 which stretched right and left over the fen near the 

 old house, snared the pike which came up to spawn, 

 and took them to the mere. Wise in their youth, 

 they dragged a farmhouse moat, and were able to 

 place some two hundred carp in the little mere as 

 food for the pike. The result was most successful, 



