CHAP. VilL] THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 14$ 



observed to be the best meat : and, contrary, the Eel is ob- 

 served to be the better for age and bigness. 



All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers, 

 because their life is maintained by the death of so many other 

 fish, even those of their own kind ; which has made him by 

 some writers to be called the Tyrant of the Rivers, or the 

 Fresh-Water-Wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devouring 

 disposition ; which is so keen, as Gesner relates, a man going 

 to a pond, where it seems a Pike had devoured all the fish, to 

 water his mule, had a Pike bit his mule by the lips ; to which 

 the Pike hung so fast, that the mule drew him out of the water, 

 and by that accident the owner of the mule angled out the 

 Pike. And the same Gesner observes, that a maid in Poland 

 had a Pike bit her by the foot as she was washing clothes in a 

 pond. And I have heard the like of a woman in Killingworth 

 Pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been assured by my 

 friend Mr. Seagrave, of whom I spake to you formerly, that 

 keeps tame Otters, that he hath known a Pike, in extreme 

 hunger, fight with one of his Otters for a Carp that the Otter 

 had caught, and was then bringing out of the water. I have 

 told you who relate these things, and tell you they are persons 

 of credit ; and shall conclude this observation by telling you 

 what a wise man has observed : " It is a hard thing to persuade 

 the belly, because it has no ears." 



But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be 

 doubted that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind, that 

 shall be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swalknr 

 a part of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till 

 the swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that othei 

 part that was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees > 

 which is jiot unlike the ox, and some other beasts, taking their 

 meat, not out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but 

 first into some place betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by 

 degrees after, which is called chewing the cud. And doubt- 



