HOW TO STRIKE A PIKE AND LAND HIM. 255 



away, and if you can get him to the top, it will the 

 sooner tire him : the more he strives and throws him. 

 self from yon, the sooner he will be weary : after this 

 manner, by drawing him up and letting him run, you 

 may tire and tame him, till you bring him to your 

 hand ; then he will lie as quiet as if he was dead. 



If you hare hung him in the gills, you cannot lose 

 him, though you pull him out by mere force, but if 

 either in his gorge or his throat, he may deceive you, 

 though he destroys himself, leaving you part of his 

 guts on the hook for a legacy, and dying soon after of 

 his wounds. When you have brought him to the bank, 

 you will find something to do before you can call him 

 your own; for if you go unadvisedly to take him out, 

 either by the back or the tail or any part of his body, 

 though you think his best is pa it, and his dancing days 

 are done, he may give another leap when you do not 

 expect it; the best way then is to use fair means, and 

 invite him to the land by persuasion, not compulsion, 

 taking him by the head, and putting your fingers into 

 his eyes, which is the fastest hold. 



If the water is low, so that the bank rises some dis- 

 tance from it ; you must not fear catching an ague, by 

 laying your belly level with the grouod ; if you have 

 no contrivance to guide him to a more commodious 

 place : some will adventure to take him by the gills, 

 though that hold is neither so secure nor so safe, be. 

 cause the fish, in that heat of passion, may take revenge 

 upon his adversary, by letting him blood in his fingers, 

 which way of phlebotomizing is not so good : some are 

 of opinion that the teeth of a Pike are venomous, and 

 those wounds are very difficult to be healed. 



If there are reeds and shallows between you and the 

 deep, or jf the river is in that ebb that you cannot 

 reach to lay hands en him ; you must contrive some 

 other means to conduct him to a more convenient land- 

 in?. Have an eye of that when you first strike him, 

 looking up and down for the best advantage ; if it is. 

 all along weedy, as it is commonly in ponds or meers, 

 that you have no conveniency to bring him to your 



