THE FISHES, MOLLUSCA, AND OTHER OBJECTS. 1ft 



and that time cannot be said to be lost which makes 

 us more intimately acquainted with the lives and 

 habits of God's creatures! All on a sudden the 

 juveniles dart off in every direction, as if they had 

 been fired by some central, radiating impulse. At 

 first you see nothing to cause all this hurry; but, 

 presently, your eye catches sight of a young Jack 

 in the weedier parts of the pond, for well does he 

 know that his dappled 

 back screens him ad- 

 mirably from view, by 

 resembling the sha- 

 dows of the ripples 

 and weeds cast on the 

 floor. 



Strange tales are 

 told of the rapacity of 

 the pike, which it is 

 not necessary to re- 

 tail here. Also, con- 

 cerning his longevity, 



there are facts and Parasite of Pike, Argulus 

 -, /v. , , natural size and magnified. 



evidence sufficient to 



convert Mr. Thorn and Sir George Cornewall Lewis 

 to a belief in his being a centenarian, under certain 

 circumstances. What a vast pyramid of life must 

 he have destroyed before he can attain this great 

 age ! But the pike has not always an easy time 

 of it. He is not unfrequently tormented by a tick- 

 like parasite (Argulus foliaceus, Fig. 2), which 



