THE PIKE. 211 



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

 observes 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 II., 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. b But of this no more, but that it is observed, that 

 the old or very great pikes have in them more of state than 

 goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized pikes being, by the 

 most and choicest palates, observed to be the best meat ; 

 and, contrary, the eel is observed 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, de- 

 vouring 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, oi 

 whom I spake to you formerly, that keeps tame otters, that 



