ABDOMINAL MALACOPTERYGII. 133 



and workmen there, to take the ducks and other 

 water-fowl, under water. Whereupon, they shot 

 magpies and crows, and threw them into the canal, 

 which the Pike took before their eyes ; of this 

 they acquainted their Lord ; who thereupon ordered 

 the slaughtermen to fling in calves' bellies, chickens' 

 offal, and such like garbage to him, to prey upon ; 

 but being soon after neglected, he died, as supposed, 

 for want of food."* In one of the London papers 

 for the 2nd, and 25th of January, 1765, the follow- 

 ing notices occur: "About ten days ago, a large 

 Pike was caught in the river Ouse, which weighed 

 upwards of twenty-eight pounds, and was sold to a 

 gentleman in the neighbourhood for a guinea. As 

 the cookmaid was gutting the fish, she found, to her 

 great astonishment, a watch with a black ribbon, and 

 two steel seals annexed, in the body of the Pike ; 

 the gentleman's butler, upon opening the watch, 

 found the maker's name, by which it appears to have 

 belonged to a gentleman's servant, who was unfortu- 

 nately drowned about six weeks ago, between Little- 

 port and South ferry." Again, " On Tuesday last, 

 at Lillishall lime-works, near Newport, a pool about 

 nine yards deep, which had not been fished for ages, 

 was let off in draining the works, when an enormous 

 Pike was found; he was drawn out by a rope, fasten- 

 ed round his head and gills, amidst hundreds of spec- 

 tators, in which service a great many men were em- 

 ployed ; he weighed upwards of 170 pounds, and is 

 thought to be the largest ever seen. Some time ago, 



* Art of Angling, p. 9. 



