218 NOTES ON FISH AND FISHING. 



are mere trifles in. the way of memory to the reminiscence 

 of the flavour of that jack, which clings to me now, though 

 nearly twenty years have passed since the day he was 

 served. He was supremely " fishy," and tasted of the 

 quintessence of the dirty green stagnant water which 

 had been his home, and, to use a grammatical form 

 which may be questionable, he smelt as bad as he tasted. 

 Ever since then the very name of a jack recalls my Devon- 

 shire experience, and the fearful struggle to swallow two 

 or three mouthfuls and play the hypocrite at my friend's 

 hospitable board. Every jack I see on a table seems to 

 exale the same abominable odour : and if by chance I am 

 led to touch a mouthful, I taste at once the same abomi- 

 nable flavour. In The Haven of Health we are told that 

 " the pickerell or pyke is of firm and hard substance, yet 

 giveth clean and pure nourishment." To my taste, any- 

 thing but " clean and pure." There is something inde- 

 scribably " fishy " in a jack beyond the fishiness of all 

 other fish. He defies the art of cookery. To adapt 

 slightly the well-known lines anent a rose, I say, — 



" You may cook him, may serve him with sauce as you will, 

 Bat the same jacky flavour will cling to him still." 



But perhaps this is all a matter of the fancy and imagina- 

 tion. Perhaps I am wrong, and my legal friend right. 

 To him, therefore, and the Jews I commit Esox lucins, to 

 do what they will with him. I will have none of him. I 

 could eat, and I believe enjoy, a bit of old saddle-flap 

 well stewed and served with rich gravy, a water souche 

 of blotting-paper, or a thin deal board curried ; but a jack 

 I cannot away with. But Chacun a son gout. 



Old authors and modern say that the roe of jack is 



