SECTION IV. 



OTHER FRESH-WATER FISHES WITH 

 FREE EGGS. 



We place fish eggs in two classes — the free or non- 

 adhesive eggs and those which are glutinous and either 

 adhere to sticks, stones, or bunch up, and those held in 

 a mass. The free eggs give little trouble, and only one 

 fresh-water fish that I know of lays its eggs in a mass, 

 or string, and these are no trouble at all. 



CHAPTER XX. 



PIKE, PICKEREL AND MASCALONGE (EsOx) . 



While I believe that the country would be better off 

 if all the pike tribe were exterminated, there are those 

 who not only do not agree to this, but actually breed 

 them, therefore they are given place here. They are 

 ravenous fishes — "fresh-water sharks" they have been 

 called — whose food is wholly fish, and they feed all win- 

 ter. I estimate that a lo-pound pike (Esox lucius) has 

 been at least four years growing, and in that time has 

 consumed fish as follows : First year, to grow i pound, 



40 pounds; second year, at 3^ pounds, 140 pounds; 



m 



