THE JACK. 197 



an inch of the tail. But, after all, this is a reflection 

 rather on the swallowing capacity of the jack than on his 

 digestive powers. 



Jack, however, have got themselves into greater diffi- 

 culties than the foregoing. In Mr. Buckland's Fish 

 Museum at South Kensington may be seen the coloured 

 cast of two jack, together weighing 19 lbs., and nearly of 

 the same size. The head of one up to the termination of 

 the gills is firmly fixed in the throat of the other. They 

 were gaffed by a boatman on Lock Tay when struggling 

 together locked in each other's jaws, and were sent to Mr. 

 Buckland without being separated. Whether this painful 

 contretemps was brought about by a charge at one 

 another when fighting, or by their both charging at the 

 same bait at the same moment, or whether one of them, 

 suffering from some ocular delusion at the time really 

 " ope'd his ponderous jaws," with intent to swallow the 

 other, cannot be determined; at all events, whether 

 " lovely " or ugly " in their lives," " in death they were 

 not divided." 



Longevity is certainly a characteristic of jack ; and 

 Bacon is probably not far out when he says they are the 

 longest-lived of all fish, and gives them a lease of 

 forty years. They are, too, very tenacious of life. I 

 remember catching an 81b. jack at Brocket Hall one 

 morning, and gave him, as I thought, his quietus by a 

 sound rap on the head, but he was alive in my basket 

 when I took him out in the evening. I then gave him a 

 succession of raps, and laid him " for dead" on a cold 

 slab in the larder. He was alive, however, the next 

 morning ! 



Our jack was probably the fish which first engaged the 



