The Pike Family 137 



carrying the head of a forty-pounder that just 

 filled an ordinary tin bucket. At Appleton, 

 while waiting for the train to Green Bay, the 

 big head was the centre of an admiring group 

 of anglers. Then came the natural and inevitable 

 query, " Where did you catch it ? " In order to 

 avoid a long recital, which only could have done 

 justice to the subject, and expecting the train at 

 any moment, I replied, " An Indian speared it on 

 Lake St. Germain." They looked at me as if I 

 had seven heads ; then one said : " Well ! well ! It 

 requires an awful lot of moral courage to make 

 such an admission." But I killed it, all the 

 same, on a nine-ounce rod, and my Indian canoe- 

 man gaffed it. 



THE PIKE 



(^Esox lucius) 



The pike is more generally known in the 

 United States as "pickerel," and sometimes as 

 the great northern pickerel to distinguish it from 

 the pickerel, properly so-called. In England the 

 young pike is a pickerel, an older one a jack, 

 and the mature fish a pike. In England and 

 continental Europe the pike {E. lucius) is the 

 only species of the family inhabiting their 

 waters, while there are five species of the family 



