A SPRING WEEK IN THE WEST HIGHLANDS. 375 



Highland lochs. We soon hooked a large pike, which ran 

 out our morsel of a line, and then snapped it. He most 

 likely found as little trouble in disgorging the hooks as in 

 breaking the line, which the following fact may show, and 

 I can vouch for the truth of it. 



A Thames fisherman hooked a large u jack " when spin- 

 ning at a mill-tail for trout. Not having a disgorger at 

 hand, he cut the line and threw the pike into a tub of 

 water, to keep it alive and fresh for sale the following day. 

 To his amazement next morning, the creature had managed 

 to cast up the eight-hook tackle, which was lying in the tub. 



The two following instances of the pike's voracity are 

 almost incredible, but both I can also certify. In the 

 spring of 1841, two pike of twelve pounds weight were 

 cast upon Loch Vennacher shore, each with a hold of the 

 other's jaws, and quite dead. The second instance hap- 

 pened in Suffolk. A jack of only two pounds was found 

 choked in attempting to swallow another of a pound and a 

 half. The gentleman who saw them taken out, only a 

 short time before, told me the fact. 



But even these instances are equalled by the solemn 

 toothless cod. A friend of mine was trolling in Loch 

 Long, and hooked a seithe. An enormous cod seized the 

 seithe, and paid the penalty by being brought into the boat 

 himself. His girth seemed unnaturally large, and, upon 

 opening him, a brown paper packet of sandwiches, enough 

 for luncheon to a pretty large party, was taken out. They 

 could not have been less injured, mustard and all, had the 

 cod's stomach been a sandwich-box. 



