DAYS AMONG 

 THE PIKE AND PERCH 



CHAPTER I 

 WHICH INTRODUCES THE PIKE 



Ancient writers on the pike Retrospective The sweep and the 

 champion pike angler Description of the pike His ferocity 

 and voracity Tench as food of pike, or doctor Breeding of 



?ike Weight and growth of pike The pike in ancient times 

 ts value as food. 



" He loves no streams, but hugs the silent deeps ; 

 And eats all hours, and yet no house he keeps." 



THEOPHILUS FRANCK, the poet, a good many 

 years ago, in singing the merits or demerits of our 

 old friend the pike, delivered himself of the foregoing 

 couplet ; and all writers, both ancient and modern, before 

 and after Franck's time, who have taken this fish as a 

 text, are very much in agreement as to the general char- 

 acter they give him. They all looked upon his formidable 

 teeth, his wicked eyes, his elongated shape, and his villain- 

 ous aspect, as being fit subjects for a good deal of vivid 

 descriptive writing ; even the very root sound of his name 

 they suggested spelt voracity and ferocity. 



One of the earliest writers who make mention of the 

 pike, the Latin poet Ausonius, who lived and wrote about 

 the fourth century, says in one of his poems 



" The wary Luce, 'midst wrack and rushes hid ; 

 The scourge and terror of the scaly brood." 



