THE Dlll'FFrELri ANGLtU. 53 



random, on weeds, roots, or stones ; but so 

 absurd a doctrine should be by this time 

 sufficiently refuted: in the present enlighten- 

 ed age, let this vulgar error, among many 

 others, yield to the universal law of nature, 

 which holds in vegetables as well as animals, 

 that nothing can be produced but by the 

 seed of its own species; even the flies in 

 corrupted flesh are no otherwise the effect 

 of that corruption, than as it serves them for 

 a proper nest and nourishment ; and doubt- 

 less, by parity of reason, there will be more 

 Pike found where there is plenty of their 

 favourite weed than in other places, without 

 the \veed Contributing in the least to their 

 original production. 



Pikes grow to a vei'y large size ; I have 

 seen one taken out of Mr. Bethel's pond at 

 Risk, near Beverley, Yorkshire, upwards of 

 thirty-eight pounds weight, with a trimmer. 

 In the year 1 790, John Wilson, Esquire, of 

 Hull, caught one in the Driffield river that 

 weighed twenty-eight pounds, and was thirty- 

 F3 



