94 ANGLING 



scarcely a private pond in the kingdom, of any respect- 

 able dimensions, whioh. is not well stocked with these 

 noble fish. 



"When the pike is in season, he is a good, firm, and if 

 cooked brown, after the French fashion, a very fine, 

 and, indeed, most excellent fish. When out of season, 

 he is about as filthy a compound as can well be tasted. 

 But perhaps there is no fish whose culinary qualities 

 have met, at different times and in different places, with 

 a greater diversity of opinion. The sentiment of 

 Ausonius is, we have just seen, strongly against it ; and 

 in the part of France to which he belonged, there is, to 

 this day, a great repugnance to the pike as an article of 

 food ; whilst at Chalons-sur-Sa6ne, on the other hand, 

 the fish is in high repute. In Italy, pike are but rarely 

 eaten; and the Spaniards reject them entirely. In the 

 northern countries of Europe their reputation rises. 

 Those taken from some of the large lakes of Germany 

 are highly esteemed; and even in our own country, 

 where once this fish was a first-rate favourite when taken 

 out of clear waters, he is still held as a gastronomic 

 luxury. Those caught in the Norfolk Broads are 

 considered very rich and delicate eating ; and the smelt- 

 fatted pike of the Medway stand high in popular 

 estimation. 



Superstition, which has touched everything connected 

 with this world, more or less, has not spared the pike. 

 A little bone in the form of a cross, which is said to be 

 discoverable in the head of the fish, has been worn by 

 the credulous as a sort of talisman against witchcraft 

 and enchantment. In some of the districts of Hungary 

 and Bohemia it is considered an unlucky omen to 

 witness before midday the plunge of the pike in still 

 waters or ditches. 



Medicine, too, has had its weaknesses and delusions 

 on subjects of this kind. The heart of the pike is 

 recommended to be eaten against the paroxysms of 

 fevers ; his gall to be used as a liniment in affections of 

 the eyes ; his mandibulse, dried into dust, against 

 pleurisy; and little fishes found in his belly were 



