26 Wild Life in Wales 



despite constant netting and the use of lines and trimmers. 

 To the boats from Bala they frequently afford good sport, 

 and in shape, colour, and quality, I doubt whether they are 

 surpassed by those from any other part of the country. 

 They are short, thick, beautifully marked fish, and, when in 

 condition, excellent on the table. Ten or fifteen pounds 

 seemed to be about the average size of the larger specimens 

 caught, with occasionally one of twenty, or twenty-five 

 pounds, but I did not hear of any heavier fish taken during 

 my stay. There is a tradition that they were introduced to 

 the lake in or about the year 1803, and that prior to that 

 time Gwyniad were much more plentiful than is the case 

 now ; but similar stories are so characteristic of so many 

 waters where pike exist, and are looked upon as harmful to 

 trout and other more desirable fish, that, personally, 1 have 

 always regarded them with scepticism. There seems to be 

 no valid reason for doubting that pike are as truly indigenous 

 to this country as trout, or any other of our common fishes, 

 and, that being so, where should we naturally expect to find 

 them if not in large ancient sheets of water such as th,is ? 

 It does not occur to anyone that it is necessary to devise 

 reasons for finding perch, trout, or minnows, in any par- 

 ticular piece of water, and why should we think differently 

 about pike ? There is an ancient doggerel which tells us 

 that 



" Turkeys, carp, hops, pickerel, 1 and beer, 

 Came into England all in one year," 



but no one regards it seriously as a record of facts. Pike 

 are frequently referred to as inhabitants of England in 

 mediaeval times ; and Day, in his standard work on British 

 Fishes, writes of it : " If we look at the geographical distribu- 

 tion of this fish, it certainly ought to be indigenous ; while 

 so far back as the reign of Edgar, we are told by Leland 

 that one of large size was taken in Remesmere, Huntingdon- 

 shire. In heraldry the luce or pike occurs in the arms of the 

 Lucy or Lucie family so far back as the reign of Henry II." 

 Though there are, no doubt, plenty of lakes and rivers in 



1 Small pike. 



