PLATE CIX. 
five pounds. Another, weighing forty-three pounds, was taken in 
1152 near Dresden. Dr. Brand saw one seven feet in length taken 
near Berlin. But the largest of these are still inferior in size to those 
found in the Lapland Lakes, and in the river Wolga in Russia. Pliny 
speaks of the Pike weighing nearly a thousand pounds. The largest 
recorded by later writers within our knowledge was that taken 
St Eayserslautern, in the Palatinate, in the year 1497, which 
measured nineteen feet in length, and weighed three hundred and 
fifty pounds. This is the celebrated fish put into the water by the 
Emperor Barbarossa in the year 1230, as appeared from an inscrip- 
tion engraved on a ring of gilt copper affixed to the fish, and which 
clearly proved it to be at the least two hundred and sixty. seven years 
old. A painting of this extraordinary fish was long preserved in the 
Chateau de Lantern, and the skeleton as well as ring at Man- 
heim. This is the most remarkable instance of longevity in the Pike 
at present known. Rzaczynski describes one that was ninety years 
old ; but after speaking of the Pike of Kayserslautem this is scarcely 
worthy mention. It is sufficiently testified by all writers, that the 
P‘ke attains to a great size and very considerable age. 
As the flesh of the Pike is not fat, and is easy of digestion, it af- 
foids an excellent food. In Germany and Lapland, where the Pike 
abounds, the inhabitants salt and dry this fish, and transport it in 
hands to other parts, especially to the Catholic countries, where it 
•onus a considerable article of commercial importance. 
I he Pike, which is of an olivaceous grey, changes to a fine green 
or gieenish cast in the spawning season, which occurs in spring; the 
spots on the back and sides, which were before obscure, become then 
a yellow or golden hue, the eyes Vermillion red, or golden tinged 
