6 THE PIKE. 



the same length of time to absorb the umbilical sac 

 of the fry. The fry when first hatched are ex- 

 tremely helpless, and are a prey apparently to 

 every other living thing in the water. The ovaries 

 of a thirty-nine and a half pound mascalonge 

 weighed five pound, and one female of thirty-five 

 pound yielded 265,000 eggs, although all her eggs 

 were not obtained." 



The late Max V. J. Borne, the German fish- 

 culturist, says the pike in Germany goes under 

 different names, such as the speckled pike, dappled 

 pike, and pike-king ; that a spawner of four pound 

 or six pound gives about 100,000 eggs ; that fry 

 hatch out in from one to three weeks, according to 

 the temperature, and have a very large umbilical 

 sac. The late Mr. Frank Buckland mentions 

 a twenty-four pound pike caught in 1879 at 

 Eastwell Park, Kent, that contained 224,640 eggs, 

 also another of twenty-eight pounds caught in 

 1869 in Loch Awe, Scotland, that contained 

 twenty-one ounces of roe, the number of eggs 

 being 292,320. 



Lambwaith (probably the present Lambeth) is 

 the earliest place, and 1 277 the year, where and when 

 pike are first mentioned. Two years after they were 

 found three successive times at the same place, and 

 called " pickerel." 



They were also taken at Cherwell, Gosford, and 

 Oxford. With one exception (Cambridge, 1342) 

 all other pike were taken from the lower portion of 

 the river Cherwell ; they are mentioned in the Act 

 of the sixth year of Richard II., 1382, and also by 

 Chaucer in the well-known lines 



" Full many a fat partrich hadde he in mewe, 

 And many a breme, and many a luce in stewe." 



