170 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



as voraciously before and during the season of reproduction 

 as at any other time ; consequently, the Loch Awe fish above- 

 mentioned, measuring only an inch less in length than the 

 Norfolk fish, but weighing 4 lb. less, would probably have 

 come within 2 lb. of the other by the following spawning 

 season. 



It is certain that there is no definite standard of size for this 

 fish, as there is in the case of such teleosteous fish as herrings and 

 sticklebacks. A pike will continue to grow so long as sufficient 

 food is supplied to sustain him, and there are many stories of pike 

 weighing as much as 70 lb. or 80 lb. ; but few, if any, of these 

 tales will stand testing by the rules of evidence. For my own 

 part, I yield implicit credence to Colonel Thornton's narrative 

 of the capture of two monsters in the Highlands. Reference 

 has been made above to the great perch which he caught in 

 Loch Lomond ;* having expressed my belief in that, I see no 

 reason to withhold it from the measurements given of the great 

 pike of Loch Alvie. This fish was 5 ft. 4 in. from the eye to 

 the fork of the tail. The Colonel's scales only went to 29 lb., 

 and he was obliged to calculate the weight of his prize, which 

 he did at 471b. or 481b. Assuming the length given to be 

 correct, this estimate tallies with the authentic record of the 

 proportions of a pike taken from Lough Romer, co. Cavan, in 

 1876, which measured 4 ft. 6^ in. long, 25 in. in girth, and 

 weighed 37f Ib.f 



Garrard, a well-known painter of sporting subjects, and 

 afterwards an Associate of the Royal Academy, was with the 

 Colonel upon this tour, and painted the portrait of this pike. 

 It now hangs in the saloon of the Piscatorial Society in the 

 Holborn Restaurant. 



When Whittlesea Mere was drained early in the nineteenth 

 century, it is recorded that a pike weighing 49 lb, was left high 

 and dry by the falling waters. No such monster was revealed 



* See p. 51. 



t y^/i?/(/ newspaper, May 30th, 1896. 



