THE ?IKE<i 26t 



i"r<»fh water fKould efcape their devaftations. Young 

 geefe and ducklings, when thej firft venture into the 

 ponds, are often deftroyed by them : and all the fmaller 

 fiihes (hew the fame terror at the appearance of the pike, 

 as the little birds do at the fight of the hawk or the 

 owl *. 



The devaftations committed by the pike are conficjer- 

 ably increafed, by the great longevity of that animal : 

 If the accounts of naturalifts can be credited, the period 

 of its exiftence far exceeds that ot every other fiih, not 

 excepting thofe of the cetaceous kinds. The Polijh na- 

 turalifl R^ac%ynjki mentions one that reached its ninetieth 

 year f ; and Gefner gives a print of a brazen ring, "that 

 had been affixed to one that was caught near Hailbrun^ in 

 the year 1497 X' ^^ it were infcribed thefe words in 

 Greek charafters ; / am the Jijh that was jirji of all 

 put into this lake hy the hands of the governor of the 

 unrjerfey Frederic //. in the ^th of Odtober 123c. Ac- 

 cording to this account, the fiih. muft have been no lefs 

 than two hundred and fixty-feven years of age, a fa£l too 

 extraordinary to be received on the evidence adduced for it. 



The generation of the pike, from its being found in 

 ponds, where none were ever introduced, has been fup- 

 pofed as extraordinary as its longevity. Nothing, how- 

 ever, feems more eafy than to account for thefe fadls, on 

 the well known principles of the generation of fiflies : If a 

 heron hath devoured their ova, and afterwards excreted 

 them while fiihing on one of thefe ponds, it is highly 

 probable, that they may be produced from this original, 

 in the fame way that the feeds oi plants are known to be 



dilTeminated 



» Britifh Zoology, Gen. 33. \ Hift. iNat, Pol. p. 15S. 



% Vide Icones pjfcivm, p. 31$. 



