PIKE. 
155 
whom it appeared absurd to apply it to a fish of such little 
estimation. 
It has been supposed that the Pike attains the age for 
spawning in three years, and that the youngest deposit their 
roe at the earliest season of the year’, rvhich may be in February 
or March; after which at successive intervals those of middle 
age and the oldest succeed them; the whole season continuing 
for about three months. These fish are very prolific, and we 
derive from Nilsson the following account of the probable 
comparative numbers of the grains of spawn to be found in 
fishes of the two extremes; comprising some whose living is 
procured from vegetables chiefly, or insects, and the ravenous 
devourer of the full-grown inhabitants of the fresh-water. Thus 
on the authority of Lund, there have been obtained from a 
Pike which weighed thirty-five pounds, two hundred and seventy- 
two thousand one hundred and sixty grains of spawn; from a 
Carp of the weight of three pounds, two hundred and thirty- 
seven thousand; and from a Tench of the same size, three 
hundred and eighty-three thousand two hundred and fifty. For 
a Salmon he reckons a thousand for every pound of its weight; 
but for the most part fish of fresh-water are less prolific than 
those of the sea. 
The place of depositing the roe is not the same Avith the 
haunts of this fish at other seasons; but a regular migration 
takes place at the breeding season, in search of such smaller, 
more rapid, and clearer streams as will suit their purpose; and 
in doing this they will overcome difficulties that ask no little 
exertion. The spawn is shed on the cleanest weed, and presently 
afterward the parent fish return to the weedy nooks of the pond 
or river, in Avhich they maintain their station during the remainder 
of the summer. It has been thought that the object of the 
parent Pikes in seeking for retired brooks in which to shed 
their spawn, has been to secure their helpless young ones from 
the depredations of other fishes, on Avhich in turn they are 
destined to subsist; but if this were the motive their care avails 
but little; for the number of Pikes which reach maturity bears 
only a small proportion to the grains of roe that are shed. It 
is more probable, however, that they are guided by instinctive 
feeling to choose a purer water than that of their usual haunts, 
and a mixture of proper temperature with brighter light; the 
