28 A BOOK OF THE RUNNING BROOK: 



to him, having been caught with rod and line in 

 the Norfolk Broads. It weighed 32 lbs., five of 

 which were represented by the roe, which con- 

 tained no less than 595,200 eggs. In another 

 pike, weighing 28 lbs., he found 292,320 eggs. 

 It is evident, therefore, that the struggle for 

 existence comes to young pickerels at a very 

 early age, and that, when stocking either rivers 

 or ponds, care should be taken to select pike as 

 nearly of the same size and age as may be, so 

 that the doctrine of the " survival of the fittest " 

 should not be demonstrated after a time by the 

 solitary presence of one ferocious monster. 



If the comparatively small number of pike 

 that survive out of the millions of eggs deposited 

 is worthy of note, still more marvellous is the 

 apparently spontaneous generation of pickerels 

 in ponds where pike have never existed. Izaak 

 Walton, like all other writers on fish, noticed 

 this mysterious peculiarity; but, unable to 

 account for it otherwise, he was inclined to 

 adopt one of the romances of Gesner and his 

 contemporaries. " It has been observed," he 

 says of pike, " that where none have been put 



