196 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



A few days after this occurrence, one of the woodmen was 

 walking by the side of the pond, when he saw something white 

 floating. A man who was passing on horseback rode in, and found 

 it to be a large pike in a dying state ; he twisted his whip round it 

 and brought it to shore. Myself and my son were immediately 

 sent for to look at it, when the boy at once recognised his antago- 

 nist. The fish appeared to have been a long time in the agonies 

 of death, and the body was very lean, and curved like a bow. It 

 measured 41 inches, and died the next day, and, I believe, was 

 taken to the Castle at Windsor. 



'There can be no doubt,' Mr. Wright adds, 'that this fish 

 was in a state of complete starvation. ... If well fed, it is 

 probable it might have weighed from 30 to 40 lbs.' 



The same gentleman also mentions that he was himself on 

 one occasion a witness, with Lord Milsington and many other 

 persons, to a somewhat similar occurrence, when, during the 

 netting of the Bourne Brook, Chertsey, one of the waders was 

 bitten in the leg by a pike which he had attempted to kick to 

 shore. This fish, which was afterwards killed, weighed 17 lbs. 



I am indebted for the following to Dr. Genzik : 



In 1829 I was bathing in the swimming school at Vienna with 

 some fellow students, when one of them — afterwards Dr. Gouge, 

 who died a celebrated physician some years ago— suddenly 

 screamed out and sank. We all plunged in immediately to his 

 rescue, and succeeded in bringing him to the surface, and finally 

 in getting him up on to the boarding of the bath, when a pike was 

 found sticking fast to his right heel, which would not loose its hold, 

 but was killed and eaten by us all in company the same evening. 

 It weighed 32 lbs. Gouge suffered for months from the bite. 



This recalls the story of the pike which was said to have 

 attacked the foot of a Polish damsel — a performance the more 

 ungallant, as the ladies of Poland are celebrated for their pretty 

 ankles. 



Bentley's Miscellany for July 185 1, gives an account of 

 the assaults of pike upon the legs of men wading ; and I 

 had myself the privilege of being severely bitten above the 

 knee by a fine Thames fish, which sprang off the ground after it 



