SIZE AND DIGESTION OF PIKE. 341 



cording to their good or bad condition, which is 

 regulated by food and the season of the year. 



The largest pike I ever saw weighed thirty-four 

 pounds, but I have seen several each weighing 

 between twenty and thirty pounds. The largest 

 pike recorded to have been killed in the British 

 Islands was one taken in the Shannon, and weigh- 

 ing ninety-two pounds. The head of one weighing 

 seventy-two pounds, and which was caught with 

 an artificial fly, is still to be seen at Kenmore 

 castle. The celebrated Colonel Thornton asserts 

 that he killed a pike in Loch Alva, Scotland, that 

 weighed fifty pounds within two ounces. I should 

 consider that the largest pike in the empire are to 

 be found in the lakes and lochs of Ireland and 

 Scotland ; and that the greatest numbers are to 

 be found in the meres and ponds of England. The 

 anecdotes of pike are more numerous and asto- 

 nishing than those of any other of our river fish. 

 I do not credit many of them. I believe that pike 

 digest their food in a few minutes, and that in 

 consequence their voracity is prodigious. I will 

 recount two or three reported instances. In 1801, 

 a hook baited with a roach was set in the manor 

 pond at Toddington, Bedfordshire ; the next 

 morning a large pike was caught, which with dif- 

 ficulty was got out. It appeared that a pike of 

 three and a half pounds weight was first caught, 



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