PIKE, 29 



It is not often that we find the father of 

 fishers either recording that which he himself 

 has not seen, or facts ; but here, for once, he is 

 found tripping as, indeed, he otherwheres admits, 

 when he throws the proof of the curious "fact" 

 upon the learned Gesner. And still there is a 

 half-truth in the statement, as it is now known 

 that the pike sheds its spawn upon pickerel- 

 weed, to which it adheres. The number of eggs 

 which a pike produces is enormous, and in three 

 individuals Buckland found respectively 43,000, 

 224,640, and 292,300 eggs in fish weighing 35 Ibs., 

 24 Ibs., and 28 Ibs. respectively. The first of these 



offered my reasons to prove contrary ; asserting that pickerels 

 have been fished out of ponds where that weed (for aught I 

 know) never grew since the nonage of time, nor pickerel never 

 known to have shed their spawn there. This I propounded 

 from a rational conjecture of the Heronshaw, who, to commode 

 herself with the fry of fish, because in a great measure part of 

 her maintenance, probably _might lap some spawn about her 

 legs, in regard to adhering to the segs and bullrushes, near the 

 shallows, where the fish shed their spawn, as myself and others, 

 without curiosity, have observed. And this slimy substance 

 adhering to her legs, etc., and she mounting the air for another 

 station, in all probability mounts with her. Where note, the 

 next pond she haply arrives at, possibly she may leave the 

 spawn behind her ; which my Compleat Angler no longer 

 deliberated, but drops his argument, and leaves Gesner to 

 defend it ; so huffed away, which rendered him rather a formal 

 opinionist than a reformed and practical artist, because to 

 celebrate such antiquated records whereby to maintain such an 

 improbable assertion." 



