388 ESOCIDE. 



in Horsea Mere weighing from twenty-eight to thirty-four 

 pounds each. These meres, or broads, as they are called 

 in Norfolk, are of great extent : Horsea Mere and Heigham 

 Sounds, with the waters connected, are calculated to include 

 a surface of six hundred acres. As the mode of fishing for 

 Pike with liggers on these extensive waters is considered 

 to be peculiar, and affords great diversion, I may state that 

 the ligger or trimmer is a long cylindrical float, made of 

 wood or cork, or rushes tied together at each end : to the 

 middle of this float a string is fixed, in length from eight to 

 fifteen feet ; this string is wound round the float except two 

 or three feet, when the trimmer is to be put into the water, 

 and slightly fixed by a notch in the wood or cork, or by 

 putting it between the ends of the rushes. The bait is fixed 

 on the hook, and the hook fastened to the end of the pen- 

 dent string, and the whole then dropped into the water. By 

 this arrangement, the bait floats at any required depth, 

 which should have some reference to the temperature of the 

 season ; Pike swimming near the surface in fine warm wea- 

 ther, and deeper when it is colder, but generally keeping 

 near its peculiar haunts. When the bait is seized by a Pike, 

 the jerk looses the fastening, and the whole string unwinds ; 

 the wood, cork, or rushes, floating at the top, indicating what 

 has occurred. Floats of wood or cork are generally painted 

 in order to render them more distinctly visible on the water 

 to the fishers who pursue their amusement and the liggers in 

 boats. Floats of rushes are preferred to others, as least cal- 

 culated to excite suspicion in the fish. 



The body of the Pike is elongated, nearly uniform in 

 depth from the head to the commencement of the dorsal fin, 

 then becoming narrower; the surface covered with small 

 scales, the lateral line indistinct : the length of the head 

 compared to the whole length of head, body, and tail, as one 



