LIVE-BAITING. ' 159 



and under water too — or whether owing to the hair or scent dis- 

 pleasing them, I know not, but they do not appear to be very 

 partial to the quadruped.' 



Rats which have once been gripped by a pike rarely appear 

 to recover. They may, not unfrequently, be found dead in the 

 weeds and bearing evident marks of pike's teeth. One very 

 large brown rat which I thus found had the head and fore part 

 of the body crushed almost flat by the pressure to which it had 

 been subjected. The marvel, however, is not that these animals 

 should often die of their injuries, but that they should ever 

 succeed in escaping from the triple chevaux defrise with which 

 -the jaws of the pike are armed. 



An anecdote taken from Mr. Buckland's charming collection 

 •of ' Curiosities of Natural History,' illustrates the ■ formidable 

 nature of these teeth, even when at rest. 



When at Oxford, he says, I had in my rooms the dried head of 

 a very large pike, captured in Holland. It was kept under a book- 

 case. One evening, whilst reading, I was much surprised, and 

 rather alarmed, to see this monstrous head roll out spontaneously 

 from below its resting-place and tumble along the floor; at the 

 same time piteous cries of distress issuing from it. The head 

 must be bewitched, thought I ; but I must find out the cause. 

 Accordingly I took it up, when, lo and behold ! inside was a poor 

 little tame guinea-pig, which was a pet, and allowed to run, with 

 two companions, about the room. With unsuspecting curiosity, 

 master guinea-pig had crept into the dried expanded jaws of the 

 monster, intending, no doubt, to take up his abode there for the 

 night. In endeavouring to get out again he found himself literally 

 hooked. Being a classical guinea-pig, he might have construed 

 fadlis descensus Averni, it is an easy thing to get down a jack's 

 mouth, sed revocare gradum, &c., but it is a precious hard job to 

 get out again. 



The scratched prisoner was only at last rescued from its 

 Regulus-like incarceration by Mr. Buckland cutting a passage 

 for him through the fish's gills, and thus enabling him to make 

 his exit d, tergo. 



To the sharpness of the teeth in the mouth of this particular 

 pike I can bear witness, having received unpleasant proof of 



