PIKE AND BLACK BASS 131 



tributions to the Edinburgh Review, wrote enthusiasti- 

 cally of the excellence of Highland pike on the 

 table; but the utmost that ordinary culinary cun- 

 ning can do is to make this fish a neutral vehicle for 

 savoury stuffing and toothsome sauce. The injury 

 done to trout waters in all parts of this kingdom by 

 the presence of this pirate is incalculable. Once let 

 it get entry to any water, and the pest is ineradi- 

 cable. You may run your lake dry and leave it so 

 for a year ; let there be but a puddle left a couple of 

 inches deep, or a reedy ditch communicating with 

 the lake in these will pikelets harbour, and, as 

 soon as the water is restored, begin reproduction 

 with malignant diligence. 



It has been long the dream of anglers to find some 

 fish able to swim with the pike on equal terms, but 

 of higher gastronomic quality, and affording more 

 exciting sport. It is true that many people delight 

 in pulling out pike, and in southern waters they 

 become almost as wary as trout, and take a lot of 

 catching. But it is dispiriting to basket fish that 

 no one will thank you for bringing home. Gimp, 

 too, is essential, for the pike's teeth are fatal even to 

 the strongest salmon gut ; and the chivalry of the 

 struggle is all on one side when the angler knows 



