216 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



" Graciously communicated on the 19th May, 1763, by 

 His Serene Highness Carl August von Hohenlohe and 

 Gleichen. 



" Johann El. Ridinger ; Aug. Wind ; 

 Martin El. Ridinger." 



This may be cited as an instance of the e ruling passion 

 strong in death/ The picture gives a very vivid idea of 

 the whole scene by torchlight, with the fox and pike in the 

 foreground, the latter holding the former by the snout. 



Occasionally, however, the Pike is himself a victim. The 

 Otter is his worst enemy, and generally comes off victor in 

 those desperate combats with which the watery realms 

 must be too frequently convulsed, could we but see what 

 goes on under their placid surface. A more exciting spec- 

 tacle, in its way, than such a struggle between these two 

 hereditary antagonists it would be difficult to conceive. 

 On the one hand, the Otter, dark, noiseless, and treache- 

 rous, writhing with eel-like suppleness to secure a position 

 from which to fix the fatal grip ; on the other, the Pike, 

 an impersonation of concentrated ferocity, flashing across 

 the arena, with eyes glaring and jaws distended or even 

 in death striving to fasten his teeth into the throat of 

 his foe *. 



The otter is not, however, the only antagonist to the 

 attacks of which the adult Pike is exposed : according to 



* It is a fact that when angry the Pike erects his fins, much in the 

 same way that a cat bristles up his fur, or a porcupine his quills ; and 

 this has been noticed by several of his biographers. 



