THE PIKE, 
a£*i 
frefh water fliould efcape their devaftations. Young 
geefe and ducklings, when they firft venture into the 
ponds, are often deftroyed by them : and all the fmaller 
g flies fliew the fame terror at the appearance of the pike, 
as the little birds do at the fight of the hawk or the 
owl *. 
The devaftations committed by the pike are confider- 
ably increafed, by the great longevity of that animal : 
If the accounts of naturalifts can be credited, the period 
of its exiftence far exceeds that of every other fifc, not 
excepting thofe of the cetaceous kinds,. The Poli/h na~ 
turalift R'zaczynjlt mentions one that reached its ninetieth 
year f ; and Gefner gives a print of a brazen ring, that 
had been affixed to one that was caught near Hailhrun, in 
the year 1497 f . On it were infcribed thefe words in 
Greek characters ; I am the ffh that was firjl of all 
put into this lake ly the hands of the governor of the 
univerfe, Frederic 11. in the $th of October 1230. Ac- 
cording to this account, the fiih mull have been no lefs 
than two hundred and fixty-feven years of age, a faS too 
extraordinary to be received on the evidence adduced for it.- 
The generation of the pike, from its being found in 
ponds, where none were ever introduced, has been fup- 
pofed as extraordinary as its longevity. Nothing, how- 
ever, feems more eafy than to account for thefe fafts, on 
the well known principles of the generation of fifties : If a 
heron hath devoured their ova, and afterwards excreted 
them while filhing on one of thefe ponds, it is highly 
probable, that they may be produced from this original, 
in the fame way that the feeds of plants are known, to be 
dift'eminated 
* B?itilh Zoology,- Gen. 31. 
t- Vids Icon?* pilciwiij p. 316', 
f Htft Mat, Pol. p. 15 s, 
