214 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



her all that time that she is casting her spawn, but touches 

 her not. 4 



I might say more of this, but it might be thought curiosity 

 or worse, and shall therefore forbear it ; and take up so 

 much of your attention as to tell you, that the best of pikes 

 are noted to be in rivers ; next, those in great ponds or 

 meres ; and the worst, in small ponds. 



But before I proceed further, I am to tell you that there 

 is a great antipathy betwixt the pike and some frogs ; and 

 this may appear to the reader of Dubravius, a bishop in 

 Bohemia, who, in his book "Of Fish and Fish-ponds," relates 

 what he says he saw with his own eyes, and could not for- 

 bear to tell the reader ; which was : 



" As he and the Bishop Thurzo were walking by a large 

 pond in Bohemia, they saw a frog, when the pike lay very 

 sleepily and quiet by the shore-side, leap upon his head ; 

 and the frog having expressed malice or anger by his 

 swollen cheeks and staring eyes, did stretch out his legs 

 and embraced the pike's head, and presently reached them 

 to his eyes, tearing with them and his teeth those tender 

 parts : the pike, moved with anguish, moves up and down 

 the water, and rubs himself against weeds and whatever he 

 thought might quit him of his enemy ; but all in vain, for 

 the frog did continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite and 

 torment the pike, till his strength failed, and then the frog 

 sunk with the pike to the bottom of the water ; then 

 presently the frog appeared again at the top and croaked, 

 and seemed to rejoice like a conqueror; after which he 

 presently retired to his secret hole. The bishop, that had 

 beheld the battle, called his fishermen to fetch his nets, and 

 by all means to get the pike, that they might declare what 



