and the Maritime Provinces. 187 



This statement of M. Carbonnier is interesting in several respects. 

 It clearly shows that nothing is gained by rearing this voracious species, 

 unless when we desire to rid a piece of water of some very worthless kind 

 of fish. Its voracity will then be of service. 



I have seen pike so abundant in some of the small, muddy ponds 

 which empty into the Schoodic lakes in Maine, that I could, if I so 

 desired, sink a canoe with them in a couple of hours. Huge monsters 

 they were, two or three feet in length and with mouths opening at least nine 

 inches. The pickerel is so destructive of trout that it will exterminate 

 them in a few years in a pond or lake in which the two occur. 



Lake Umbagog, in Maine, was formerly a famous trout lake, one of 

 the very best in the Rangeley system ; but a number of years ago pickerel 

 were in some way introduced into it and the trout have now entirely disap- 

 peared. 



" I used in my boyhood days, and even later, to have great sport at 

 pickerel fishing through the ice," said the Judge. "We chose a bright, 

 warm day when the mercury marked above thirty degrees, and after cutting 

 two dozen or more holes through the ice, we baited hooks with living min- 

 nows, or shiners, and dropped them into the holes. The lines to which 

 they were attached had pieces of red flannel tied to them, and they were 

 held up over the holes by twigs or switches which were stuck into the ice. 

 When a fish was hooked the flag dropped, thus giving a signal to the eager 

 anglers. It seems to me now like pretty tame sport, but we enjoyed it in 

 those days." 



" Yes, said I, " we have all fished more or less through the ice in our 

 younger days and how intensely we enjoyed it." 



" I remember, said the Doctor, " that in addition to pickerel we used 

 to catch the handsome yellow perch, sometimes a pound or more in weight." 



"It is a handsome fish, as you say, Doctor," said the Judge, "but 

 that is about its only merit. The white perch is vastly better as a 'pan- 

 fish.' " 



fishing. Well, most proprietors of waters agree that at this second fishing 

 they have never found these large fish which were reserved. 



"I repeat it, in ponds the pike seldom lives ten years; it could not, 

 indeed, be otherwise with a voracious fish, which only cares for living prey. 



" When the water is muddy the pike becomes lean and loses a third 

 of its weight, owing to its inability to see its prey. Of all our fishes the 

 pike is the most gifted in the power of vision. Poised, motionless, almost 

 on the surface of the water, it sees the slightest movement at a distance of 

 fifteen or eighteen feet, and darts upon it like an arrow. 



" A pike of twenty-two pounds, in order to attain that weight, must, as 

 I have calculated, have eaten 164 pounds of other fish, which would have 

 been enough to feed two hundred persons for one day. At the Paris 

 market, the average price of pike is 9d. per pound, so that a twenty-two 

 pound pike is worth about 16s. ; but as it has eaten at least the value of 

 £± in fish, the proprietor of the pond has sustained a loss of £3, 3s." 



