14 DAYS AMONG THE PIKE AND PERCH 



museum ; but when this was examined by an experienced 

 naturalist he had no hesitation in pronouncing it a clever 

 fraud, evidently built up to fit the story. 



Another story mentions a pike that seized the lips of a 

 mule that had gone into a lake to drink ; and still another 

 historian puts on record that a pike seized the foot of a 

 Polish woman who had stepped into a stream. 



All sorts of tales have been gravely handed down from 

 father to son, in all probability gaining weight in the 

 process, as to what has been found in the belly of certain 

 jack at one time or other. There was one tale told in a 

 village in Cambridgeshire about a man who was drowned 

 in a very deep pool in the river there. Some time after- 

 wards a very large pike was captured from the same pool, 

 and on opening the fish the watch and chain belonging to 

 the dead man were found ; and as if it could prove the 

 statement, the watch was exhibited, together with several 

 large metal buttons that had formed part of the clothing 

 of the unfortunate man. By this, I take it, it was implied 

 that the pike had either attacked the man, or picked his 

 pocket, or something very like it. Another tale was to the 

 effect that the body of a dead infant was recovered from 

 the inside of another mighty pike. 



Sir J. Hawkins, in his notes to one edition of the Complete 

 Angler, says : " On a Tuesday in the year 1765, at the Lime 

 Works, Lillieshall, near Newport, a deep pool was drained, 

 and an enormous pike was found. He was drawn out by 

 a rope fastened round his head and gills, in the presence of 

 hundreds of spectators. He weighed upwards of one 

 hundred and seventy pounds, and is thought to be the 

 largest ever seen. Some time ago the clerk of the parish 

 was trolling in the above pool, when his bait was seized 

 by the furious creature, which by a sudden jerk pulled him 

 in, and doubtless would have devoured him also, had he 

 not by wonderful agility and dexterous swimming escaped 

 the dreadful jaws of this voracious animal." 



The authority for this amazing pike tale was stated to 



