PIKES. 
217 
ii who have wandered on the banks of my favourite 
Avon, as it flows through the borders of the New 
Forest, and seen its clear and sparkling waters 
passing over the long and yielding rushes, which 
sometimes show themselves above the surface, and 
j then gently hide themselves as some dragon-fly 
I settles upon them, — those that have watched the 
I graceful bendings of the stream, sometimes open- 
I ing into shallow hroads covered with ephemerce^ 
and then narrowing into deeper and more rapid 
channels, will have experienced the quiet enjoy- 
ment of the scenery of one of our most beautiful 
rivers. . . . It is to the honest and patient 
angler, that such scenes afford the greatest enjoy- 
ment and admiration. Far removed from the 
noise and turmoil of the world, he prepares his 
rod, and while standing on the banks of the 
stream, with the speckled trout rising freely 
around him, he ^tastes the unrifled freshness of 
the air,’ and is thankful for the innocent enjoy- 
ment he is partaking of.”'^ 
Family IL Esocid^. 
{Pihes.) 
Fishes differing much from each other in out- 
ward appearance are associated in this Family; 
and, therefore, the characters by which they can 
be described are few. The single dorsal, placed 
far behind, and corresponding, both in form and 
position, to the anal, is the most obvious charac- 
ter, though not wholly without exception, for in 
Microstoma^ the dorsal is rather before the anal. 
* Jesse’s Scenes of Country Life, p. 80. 
