AND FISHING. 73 



This fish attains to a large size in a shorter 

 time, in proportion to most others : in the course 

 of the first year it grows eight or ten inches ; the 

 second, to twelve and fourteen ; the third, to 

 eighteen or twenty inches. Willougliby speaks 

 of one that weighed thirty-two pounds. Pennant 

 heard of one that weighed thirty-five pounds. 

 Another was taken at Dresden which weighed 

 forty-three pounds. Dr. Brand saw one seven 

 feet in length taken at Berlin. But these are all 

 greatly inferior in size to those mentioned by Pliny, 

 and other ancient authors. Donovan, p. 109. 



Extraordinary Growth of Pike. Four years 

 ago, some pike were turned into a pond belonging 

 to R. Cartwright, Esq. in Northamptonshire. The 

 largest weighed two and a half pounds. In 

 October last, the pond was let off, and one pike 

 of nineteen pounds, together with five more from 

 eleven to fifteen pounds each. There was a good 

 stock of carp in it when the water was let off. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. Nov. 5, 1829. 



The rapid growth of some fish is very extraor- 

 dinary. I saw three pike taken out of a pond in 

 Staffordshire, belonging to the present Sir J. Clark 

 Jervoise, two of which weighed thirty-six pounds 

 each, and the other thirty-five pounds. The pond 

 was fished every seven years, and, supposing that 

 store pike of six or seven pound weight were left 



