188 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXII. 



Sutherland are intersected by numerous excellent 

 salmon rivers and beautiful lakes, full to overflow- 

 ing of trout and pike. It is a fallacy to suppose 

 that pike are at all detrimental to the sport of the 

 fly-fisher — at least in a Highland lake, where there 

 is depth and space enough for both trout and pike to 

 live and flourish in. Of course pike kill thousands 

 and tens of thousands of small trout. But the prin- 

 cipal thing to be regretted in almost all Highland 

 lakes is that there are far too many trout in them, 

 and that the fly-fisher may work for a month with- 

 out killing a trout of two pounds weight. Pike 

 keep down this overstock, and yet still leave plenty 

 of trout, which are of a better size and quality than 

 where they are not thinned. I have invariably 

 found that this is the case, and that I could kill a 

 greater weight of trout in a loch where there are 

 pike than where they had not these their natural 

 enemies to keep down the undue increase in their 

 numbers. Pike, too, are by no means exclusively 

 piscivorous ; they are as omnivorous as a pig or 

 an alderman. A great part of the food of a pike 

 consists of frogs, leeches, weeds, etc. etc. Young 

 wild-ducks, water-hens, coots, and even young rats, 

 do not come amiss to him. Like a shark, when 

 hungry, the pike swallows anything and everything 

 which comes within reach of his murderous jaws. 



