CHAP, VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 127 



it is observed, that the old or very great Fikes have in 

 them more of state than goodness ; the smaller or middle- 

 sized Pikes being, by the most and choicest palates, 

 observed to be the best meat : and, contrary, the Eel is 

 observed to be the better for age and bigness. 



All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keep- 

 ers, because their life is maintained by the death of so 

 many other fish, even those of their own kind; which has 

 made him by some writers to be called the tyrant of the 

 rivers, or the fresh-water wolf, by reason of his bold, 

 greedy, devouring disposition; which is so keen, that, 

 as Gesner relates, A man going to a pond, where it seems 

 a Pike had devoured all the fish, to water his mule, had a 

 Pike bit his mule by the lips ; to which the Pike hung so 

 fast, that the mule drew him out of the water; and by that 

 accident, the owner of the mule angled out the Pike. And 

 the same Gesner observes, that a maid in Poland had a 

 Pike bit her by the foot, as she was washing clothes in a 

 pond. And I have heard the like of a woman in Killing- 

 worth pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been 

 assured by my friend Mr. Seagrave, of whom I spake to 

 you formerly, that keeps tame Otters, that he hath known 

 a Pike, in extreme hunger, fight with one of his Otters 

 for a Carp that the Otter had caught, and was then 

 bringing out of the water. I have told you who relate 

 these things ; and tell you they are persons of credit; and 

 shall conclude this observation, by telling you, what a 

 wise man has observed, " It is a hard thing to persuade 

 the belly, because it has no ears." ' 



by the hand of Fredericke the Second, governour of the world, the fift of Octo- 

 ber, in the year 1830. He was again taken up in the yeare 1497, and by the 

 inscription it appeared he had then lived there 267 jearcs." 



(1) Bowlker, in hw Art of Angling before cited, page 9, gives the following 

 instance of the exceeding voracity of this fish : " My father catched a Pike in 

 Barn-Meer, (a large standing water in Cheshire) was an ell long, and weighed 

 thirty-five pounds, which he brought to the lord Cholmondeley : his lordship 

 ordered it to be turned into a canal in the garden, wherein were abundance of 



