THE PlKE. 
185 
At the Marquis of Stafford’s canal at T tenth am, a pike 
seized the head of a swan, as she was feeding under water, 
and gorged so much of it as killed them both. The ser- 
vants, perceiving the swan with its head under water for a 
longer time than usual, took the boat, and found both swan 
and pike dead. 
But there are instances of its fierceness still more sur- 
prising, and which, indeed, border a little on the marvellous. 
Gessner relates, that a famished pike in the Rhone seized 
on the lips of a mule, that was brought to water, and that 
the beast drew the fish out before it could disengage itself- 
that people have been bit by these voracious creatures while 
they were washing their legs, and that they will even con- 
tend with the otter for its prey, and endeavour to force it 
out of its mouth. 
Small fish shew the same uneasiness and detestation at 
the presence of this tyrant, as the little birds do at the 
sight of the hawk or owl. When the pike lies dormant 
near the surface (as is frequently the case), the lesser fish are 
often observed to swim around it in vast numbers, and in 
great anxiety. Pike are often haltered in a noose, and taken 
while they lie thus asleep, as they are often found in the 
ditches near the Thames, in the month of May. 
In the shallow water of the Lincolnshire /ens, they are 
frequently taken in a manner peculiar, we believe, to that 
country, and the isle of Ceylon. The fishermen make use 
ot what is called a crown-net, which is no more than a 
hemispherical basket, open at top and bottom. He stands 
at the end of one of the little fen-boats, and frequently puts 
his basket down to the bottom of the water, then, pokino- a 
stick into it, discovers whether he lias any booty by the 
striking of the fish ; vast numbers of pike are taken in this 
manner. 
The longevity of this fish is very remarkable, if we may 
credit the accounts given of it. Rzaczynski tells us of one 
that was ninety years old ; but Gessner relates, that in the 
year 1497, a pike was taken near Hailbrun, in Suabia with 
a brazen ring affixed to it, on which were these words in 
V> 1- eek characters : I am the fish which teas first of all put 
into tins Me by the hands of the governor of the universe, 
•Frederick the second, the 5lh of October, 1250: so that the 
former must have been an infant to this Melhusalem of a 
Pike spawn in March or April, according to the coldness 
or the warmth of the weather. When they are in high sea* 
Vor - II. -2 a 
