BSOCID^ OR PIKES. 399 



and from the above account of this esox it would seem 

 that great fish are in the same predicament ; a reflec- 

 tion suggestive of a new second reading for the remain- 

 der of the celebrated Latin line inchoated above, the 

 substitution of ' luce ' vice ' duce : ' ' quot libras in luce 

 summo;^ 



How many pounds of that great Jack remain, 

 The well-gorged tyrant of two centuries' reign P 



After the mention of such a monster as this, it would be 

 an anti-climax to refer to Scotch, Irish, German, Swiss, 

 or Italian specimens weighing from twenty to a hundred 

 pounds each; any of which, however, would sufi&ce to 

 estabUsh the longevity of pike, and show that Sir Fran- 

 cis Bacon^s assigned period of forty years, which he con- 

 siders the extreme limit of pike life, cannot have been 

 deduced from correct data. We must not be deceived 

 here by any supposed analogy between human oppres- 

 sors and these tyrants of the deep ; with us the allotted 

 period for such savages is fortunately, for the most part, 

 short ; frequently they ' do not live out half their days,' 

 comparatively : 



Few blood-stain'd despots pass the sable flood 

 Unscathed by wounds or unbaptized in hlood.* 



But the pike is a notable exception to this rule of our 

 own race ; coming to full maturity only by slow degrees, t 



* Juvenal. 



t The growth of a pike, under favourable circumstances, during 

 the earlier portion of life, is occasionally at the rate of four pounds 

 per annum ; after twelve years he diminishes probably to one or 

 two pounds ; and lessens still more as age advances. When about 

 five years old, he wiU eat every fortnight his own weight in gud- 

 geons, and do ample justice to his food, by a proportionate in- 

 crease in size and weight ; when old, however, though his appe- 

 tite may be as good, yet having then many parasites to maintain, 

 the assimilation is not so perfect as in a younger fish. 



