THE FOURTH DA\. 



CHAP. VIII. Observations of the LUCE or PIKE, with Direction* 

 how to fish for him. 



PISCATOR. 



THE mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the Tyrant, as the 

 Salmon is the King, of the fresh waters. 'T is not to be 

 doubted but that they are bred, some by generation, and some 

 not : as namely, of a weed called Pickerel-weed, unless learned 

 Gesner be much mistaken ; for he says, this weed and other 

 glutinous matter, with the help of the sun's heat in some par- 

 ticular months, and some ponds apted for it by nature, do be- 

 come Pikes. But doubtless divers Pikes are bred after this 

 manner, or are brought into some ponds some such other ways 

 as are past man's finding out, of which we have daily testimo- 

 nies. 



Sir Francis Bacon, in his " History of Life and Death," ob- 

 serves the Pike to be the longest-lived of any fresh- water fish, 

 and yet he computes it to be not usually above forty years ; 

 and others think it to be not above ten years : and yet Gesner 

 mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland in the year 1449, with a 

 ring about his neck, declaring he was put into that pond by 

 Frederick the Second, more than two hundred years before he 

 was last taken, as by the inscription in that ring, being Greek, 

 was interpreted by the then Bishop of Worms. But of this 

 no more, but that it is observed that the old or very great 

 Pikes have in them moire of state than goodness ; the smaller 

 or middle-sized Pikes being by the most and choicest palates 



