TIME TO ALLOW FOR POUCHING. 5' 



moved a certain distance, remains still for three 

 or four minutes, then shakes or tugs the line 

 and moves off rapidly, wind up the loose line 

 and strike, but not with too much force, for 

 you will find if a Jack has laid quiet for three 

 or four minutes and then gets restless, that he 

 has, generally, pouched the bait (which Jack 

 will sometimes do directly they take it), and 

 begins to feel the hooks. I have sometimes 

 found on landing a Jack that he had got the 

 hook completely down, but that the bait, which 

 he had blown out again, was swimming a foot 

 or more up the line ; and with the same bait, 

 which in a few instances has only had two or 

 three teeth-marks on it, I have taken another 

 Jack directly. 



The voracity of the Pike is well known to 

 be enormous. I know of two or three in- 

 stances of Pike being choked through trying 

 to swallow one slightly smaller than them- 

 selves. There is a case mentioned of a large 

 Pike in a lake seizing a swan by the head while 

 it was, according to custom, groping among 

 the weeds. He got the head down, but the 

 body was too large even for his capacious 

 jaws. The carcases were found a few days 

 afterwards on the shore : the Pike being unable 

 to disgorge, was choked. To these torments 

 of the finny tribe nothing comes amiss, from a 

 duck to a leaden plummet. One was taken in 

 the Lea some time since, while the angler was 

 plumbing the depth in a Roach-swim : the Jack, 



