THE PIKE. 59 



When salmon were found in the Thames (they 

 were never abundant, for the Thames is not natu- 

 rally a salmon-river), pike, a fish of comparatively 

 modern introduction, were unknown. Even should 

 one smolt in ten thousand find its way to the sea 

 and return a grilse, which, so far as I know, has 

 never yet happened, there are pike in the Thames 

 that would swallow him like a gudgeon. I have 

 seen a jack, of three pound weight, which had 

 taken a trimmer bait, seized by his grandfather, 

 or some other elderly relative, and have had a 

 great fight before, to our mutual disappointment, 

 the elder was compelled to loose his hold. Last 

 year, in the Thames, I caught a barbel of nearly 

 six pounds weight that had evidently been seized 

 and severely bitten by a pike ; and there are well- 

 authenticated instances of great fish being taken 

 from the water, choked in their effort to swallow 

 a moor-hen or a full-grown duck. One instance 

 of the latter in Norfolk, and another in Rutland, 

 have come within my own knowledge.* 



There are several ways of fishing for the pike ; 

 and as it undoubtedly affords the very best and 



* In Mr F. Buckland's museum there is a cast of two pike, about 

 five pounds each in weight, the one choked in his attempt to swallow 

 the other. There is no appreciable difference in their size, yet the 

 one is half-way down the throat of the other. 



