50 THE PIKE 



had done duty alive, and were therefore pretty well 

 denuded of scales. 



We thereupon affixed the Storr flights, and after 

 working in vain for half an hour each caught a y-lb. 

 fish. Presently I had one of 3 lb., and about half an 

 hour later, almost at the last throw, my friend brought 

 to boat one of 4^1b. Even so we had not done 

 badly, my entry standing at seven fish weighing 29 lb. 

 (including the perch, which confronts me in a case, a 

 perfect model of Perca fluviatilis). The other rod 

 had also accounted for seven fish weighing 30^ lb., 

 his score being, beside the two which I have specified, 

 pike of 5 lb., 4 lb., 5 lb., 5 lb., 5 lb. In the two short 

 days of five hours each we had between us accounted 

 for 200^ lb. of pike, though, through the irony of fate, 

 on the first day out of my fifteen I retained but two, 

 and should have had no more on the second day but 

 for the perch. My friend, who had been throughout 

 getting the bigger fish, on the second day had a solitary 

 pike in his basket to travel to town in the very re- 

 spectable company of the specimens of 15 lb. and 

 i81b. And this story of pike fishing is told as a fair 

 illustration of the sport that is furnished in these 

 typical lakes of our English parks. 



