LIVE-BAITING. 141 



A bout three months after the fish had been placed in the pond, it 

 was coated over with ice, and remained so most of the winter. 

 Consequently I lost sight of my pike until the return of the following 

 spring, when he made his re-appearance at the surface of the 

 water, very much thinner, it is true, but grown certainly four 

 inches. Having cleared the pond of all kinds of beetles and other 

 aquatic food, I had to resort to other means of keeping the fish 

 alive. For this purpose I used to throw into the pond daily three 

 or four frogs, which the pike greedily devoured before they had a 

 chance of escaping. ' 



As the summer advanced, the number of frogs were increased 

 to eight or ten a day, all of which were most eagerly taken, as also 

 were large worms, small ones being rejected with scorn, even if 

 they came invitingly close to the jaws of the fish. Regularly every 

 morning Jack would rise to the surface as soon as he saw me 

 approaching the pond, and instantly begin to wag his tail and fins 

 with delight, and apparent joy ; he would then follow me round 

 the pond several times in succession to receive his allowance of 

 frogs, and even allow himself to be quietly stroked down the back 

 with a small stick. This continued until the month of October, 

 when the pike would be about two years old ; unluckily a scarcity 

 of frogs began to make itself apparent in my garden, so having 

 found a ground lizard under a creeping plant, I resolved to try 

 whether or no the pike would eat it. No sooner had I thrown the 

 reptile into the pond, than it was seized and devoured, but with 

 this unfortunate result : in half an hour after swallowing the land 

 lizard, the pike became uneasy, and commenced to swim backwards 

 and forwards as if in pain, and this continued with increasing 

 vehemence every hour until the following day, when having com- 

 pletely changed his colour to a sickly ashen hue, he turned over 

 and died. 



Upon getting the pike out of the water, I found that it weighed 

 just upon four pounds : its body was very bloated. I did not, how- 

 ever, examine the contents of its stomach. 



According to some, there is a special antipathy between the 

 pike and the frog, the latter fixing himself upon the pike's head 

 and endeavouring to eat out its eyes. Dubravius, Bishop of 

 Bohemia, is quoted by Walton as having been witness to one 

 of these experiments in optics. 



The bishop, he says, that had beheld the battle, called his 



