WATER POACHERS 189 



unfortunately the practice is continued after the 

 eggs are hatched. The big fish sometimes so 

 terrify the tiny trout and samlets that the latter 

 throw themselves clear out of the water and lie 

 gasping on the pebbles, while the would-be devourer 

 beats about the shallows, disappointed at losing his 

 prey. An old " kelt " salmon has been seen to 

 devour fifty of his own progeny for breakfast; and 

 the pike is a greater water- wolf still. This fish has 

 been known to increase at the enormous rate of from 

 eight to ten pounds a year when favourably placed 

 for feeding. So voracious a creature is the pike, and 

 furnished with such digestion, that it will destroy 

 a half-pound trout a day for twelve months a 

 terrible drain upon any stream. Then it has an all- 

 capacious maw for silvery smolts as they are making 

 their way down to the sea, and of these at certain 

 seasons it devours myriads. Of course pike keep 

 coarse fish under, which are indirectly injurious to 

 trout, and in this way confer a benefit upon the 

 angler. There is another way in which he is beneficial, 

 and that is as a scavenger. A diseased salmon or trout 

 never lives more than a few minutes in his presence, 

 for he gulps down fish, fungus and all. In this 

 connection there is one fact which ought not to be 

 overlooked. Of late years disease has played 

 terrible havoc in some of the best rivers in the 

 country. In one of these, known to me, scarcely 



