AND OF STILL WATERS. 27 



accounts for the pike's leniency towards the 

 tench on the ground that the latter is the pike's 

 physician ; and Camden in his " Britannia " was 

 not afraid to say, " I have seen the bellies of 

 pikes which have been rent open have their 

 gaping wounds presently closed by the touch of 

 the tench, and by his glutinous slime perfectly 

 healed up." It is true that it would be question- 

 able sanity on the part of the pike to eat his 

 doctor ; but the fact that the pike's eyes are on 

 the top of his head, and that the tench lives at 

 the bottom of the muddiest water he can find, 

 may have something to do with this self-denial 

 on the part of the water-wolf. 



His own species enjoy no immunity from his 

 universal greed; and there is good reason for 

 believing that more young pickerels are devoured 

 by their parents than by all their other enemies 

 put together, not excepting eels, who, however, 

 account to some extent for the enormous 

 difference between the eggs found in the roe of 

 the female pike and the comparatively small 

 number of pike to be found in our rivers. Mr. 

 Frank Buckland tells of a pike which was sent 



