106 PIKE AND BLACK BASS 



caught by this means, and I believe it to be hardly 

 possible to do so. 



It has never been decided, I believe, whether the too 

 common pike is an indigenous fish in British waters, 

 or whether it has been introduced artificially. Probably 

 it is a native, but its unwelcome presence in many lakes 

 and streams is certainly owing to its cultivation in 

 monkish times. Its fecundity and rapid growth made 

 the pike valuable in providing a steady supply of fish 

 for Fridays and other fasts; but, all assertion to the 

 contrary notwithstanding, it affords unpalatable, or at 

 best, insipid food. Colonel Thornton, whose amusing 

 Sporting Tour formed the subject of one of Sir Walter 

 (or as he then was Mr. Walter) Scott's earliest and 

 most scathing contributions to the Edinburgh Revieiv, 

 wrote enthusiastically of the excellence of Highland 

 pike on the table ; but the utmost that ordinary culin- 

 ary cunning can do is to make this fish a neutral 

 vehicle for savoury stuffing and toothsome sauce. The 

 injury done to trout waters in all parts of this kingdom 

 by the presence of this pirate is incalculable. Once 

 let it get entry to any water, and the pest is ineradi- 

 cable. You may run your lake dry and leave it so for 

 a year ; let there be but a puddle left a couple of inches 

 deep, or a reedy ditch communicating with the lake 

 in these will pikelets harbour, and, as soon as the 

 water is restored, begin reproduction with malignant 

 diligence. 



It has been long the dream of anglers to find some 

 fish able to swim with the pike on equal terms, but of 



