174 BRITISH FRESH-WATER FISHES 



puzzling. It is not easy to account for its presence in certain 



waters, and its absence from neighbouring and similar ones. 



For example, in my native parish of Mochrum, Wigtownshire, 



there are ten natural lakes, from two hundred acres down to one 



acre in extent. Some of these are basins scooped out of the 



glacial till, others are depressions in the prevailing Lower 



Silurian rock beds. Pike swarm in eight of these lochs, and 



are wholly absent from two of them. Long may they remain 



so, for their room is occupied by numbers of very good trout. 



Still more remarkable is the capricious distribution of pike in 



the southern uplands of Scotland. They infest most of the 



waters, both running and still, but here and there occur lakes, 



such as Loch Grennoch, abounding in trout and char, and the 



two Glenhead lochs in Glentrool, where no pike are found. 



The fry, of course, find their way wherever a rill runs or 



a drain trickles, but some of these hill lochs are situated so 



high that the pike therein must be descended from an ancestry 



established when the land levels were different. In such an 



elevated and desolate region, the presence of these fish can 



scarcely be attributed to the agency of man. 



Pike, nearly allied as they are to the Salmonid^e, ought to 



be excellent food, and some there be that profess to find them 



so. As for me, I have tried hard to relish them in 

 Pike as food, . -, , , , , , 



various rorms, but have never been able to overcome 



a strong repugnance to the flesh. Nor is this prejudice, as it 



might easily be in a mere matter of taste, over which reason 



exercises no control. This was proved one day in a very 



practical way at my own table, where pike are tabu. I helped 



myself to what appeared to be excellent fried fillet of cod ; 



the first mouthful was unaccountably nasty ; I looked more 



closely at the fish and detected a thin forked bone, unmistakable 



sign of pike. And pike it was ; my son having been 



disporting himself on the lake that day, had persuaded the 



cook to serve some of his spoil. Therefore, despite the 



authority of many eulogists, my opinion of pike is this : 



