84 SPRING-TIDE. 



the fish to have an inch of line, or he is 

 gone. 



J. I have heard, that in the smaller 

 streams in Scotland, the biggest fish take 

 up their stations in the pools, devour their 

 own progeny one by one, and then, like 

 famished wolves, snatch at almost anything 

 that may be offered them, to their inevitable 

 destruction. 



S. A large trout is little inferior to the 

 pike in voracity ; but he is not so indiscri- 

 minate, nor so rash : the pike dashes at 

 anything, animate or inanimate, that comes 

 near him. I have heard of more than one 

 instance of his seizing the plummet of the 

 angler while trying the depth of the stream ; 

 and a friend of mine, while bottom-fishing 

 some years since, caught a perch that, while 

 landing, was seized by a pike, which how- 

 ever managed to get free again. 



J. I have known instances of their 

 seizing a hooked fish. This disposition of 



