30 THE PIKE. 



as is the case with the Sultan's wives, who, when 

 disobedient, are put into a sack and tumbled into 

 the Bosphorus. This, I believe, is the origin of the 



term ' giving the sack.' At last J managed to 



get towards shore, when the keeper at last gone 

 to his dinner of course ! came to his assistance, 

 when the two of them contrived to bag the pike 

 effectually, and they carried her a long way inshore 



before J gave her the final coup de grdce" 



This pike measured 45! ins. in length, and 25^ ins. 

 in girth. Two casts were made of it by Frank Buck- 

 land, one for his Fish Museum, South Kensington, 

 the other cast was painted to life by H. L. Rolfe, 

 and is in the possession of its captor. 



There is no doubt that river-pike are, size for 

 size, more powerful and give better sport than 

 lake-fish ;' for living much of their time and pur- 

 suing their prey in quick flowing streams, and 

 often in the rapid rush of weir-pools, they get to 

 be like athletes in training, and when hooked 

 fight for freedom while there is any " fight " left in 

 them. The dash of even a ten-pound river-pike, 

 on either spinning, snap, or paternoster tackle, 

 is something to make one's blood tingle in cold 

 weather when those fish are at their best ; and 

 the sport is not so much inferior to that given 

 by a salmon of similar size, which anglers for 

 those fish assert should be played and landed at 

 the rate of a minute per pound weight. The 

 Thames has given me many very fine pike, my 

 best two days being at Sonning, in January, 

 1877, with a friend, twenty-three fish weighing 

 190 Ibs., the largest 2i| Ibs., i8i Ibs., 17 Ibs., and 

 15 Ibs. 



On the Dorsetshire Frome in January 1882, 



