I 4 THE PIKE. 



watch with a black ribbon, and two steel seals 

 annexed, in the body of the pike. The gentleman's 

 butler, upon opening the watch, found the maker's 

 name, Thomas Cranefield, Burn ham, Norfolk. Upon 

 a strict enquiry it appears that the said watch was 

 sold to a gentleman's servant, who was unfor- 

 tunately drowned about six weeks ago, in his way 

 to Cambridge, between this place and South-Ferry. 

 The watch is in the possession of Mr. John Roberts, 

 at the Cross-Keys in Littleport, for the inspection of 

 the public." 



Another characteristic of pike is their pugnacity, 

 for where a large one has taken up its haunt and 

 feeding-place in a river, it seldom, if ever, tolerates, 

 unless they have paired a smaller pike as an 

 interloper, and, as a rule, will attack and try to 

 drive the smaller fish away. To give an instance 

 of this: On February 2nd, 1879, when fishing in 

 the late afternoon at Holme Bridge on the Frome, 

 Dorsetshire, I caught a 15 Ib. pike at the entrance 

 to a favourite backwater ; and, on landing the fish, 

 found it was terribly scored and bitten on the back 

 and sides, from which I concluded it had ventured 

 into the cruising-ground of a much larger fish that 

 had resented the intrusion, and which I decided to 

 try for next morning. Commencing some distance 

 up stream, and gradually fishing down, just outside 

 the backwater in the main stream, my live-bait 

 (a dace) was taken, and I struck a large and power- 

 ful fish. The river was flowing full, and the bridge 

 was only a short distance below, through the small 

 arches of which my punt would not safely pass, so 

 that I had to play the fish heavily ; but my gut- 

 trace was of the best, and after twenty minutes' 

 exciting sport, I gaffed my fish, a 23-pounder, in 



