THE PIKE. 53 



turalSy devour his own kind. These fish were 

 introduced into England in the reign of Henry 

 the VIII. in 1537- They were so rare, that a 

 pike was sold for double the price of a house- 

 lamb, in February, and a pickerel for more than 

 a fat capon. He spawns in February or March ; 

 the best pike are those that are found in rivers, 

 those in ponds are not near so good : the larger 

 he is, the coarser the food, and so vice versa. He 

 feeds on small fishes, and frogs, and on a weed 

 called pickerel, from which some assert he derives 

 his being ; he is a solitary, melancholy, and bold 

 fish, always being by himself, and never swim- 

 ming in shoals, or in company with other fishes* 

 There are two ways of angling for the pike, by 

 the ledger beat and the walking bait. First, the 

 ledger bait is that fixed in one certain place r and 

 which the angler may leave and angle for other 

 fish ; of this kind the best is some living bait, as 

 a dace, gudgeon, roach, or live frog. To apply it, 

 if a fish, stick the hook through his upper lip, or 

 back fin, then fastening it to a strong line tenor 

 twelve yards long ; tie the other end to some 

 stake in the ground, or stump of a tree, near the 

 pike's haunt; letting the line pass over the fork 

 of a stick, placed for the purpose, and suspend- 

 ing the hook, by a yard of the line in the water; 

 but so as when the pike bites, the fork may give 

 way, and let him have line enough to go to his 

 hold, and pouch the bait. If you bait with a 

 frog, but the arming wire in at his mouth, and 

 out at his gill ; then tie the frog's leg above the 

 upper joint to the armed wire. Seconaly, The 

 walking bait is that which the fisher attends to 

 himself, and is called trowling, from the French 

 of trailer 9 to move or walk about. Before i 

 FS 



