THE PIKE, Sc C . 
119 
extremity of the Union to the other, and do not materially 
differ from the same species in other countries, and, as the 
Yankee would say, will live as long, eat as much, and grow 
as large, as in any other place on airth. The largest within 
recollection was taken in one of our western lakes, and 
weighed 46 pounds. 
They increase in size faster than any other fish known. 
Block, a German author, says, that “ in the first year they 
grow from eight to ten inches, in the second from twelve to 
fourteen, and in the third from eighteen to twenty.” 
They are observed by Walton to be “a solitary, melan- 
choly, and bold fish ; melancholy because he always swims 
or rests himself alone, and never swims in shoals or with 
company, as the roach and dace and most other fish do, and 
bold because he fears not a shadow, or to see and be seen, 
as the trout and chub, and all other fish do.” Rather sorry 
company for any kind of fish would be the pike, according 
to Rennie, who says that a pike placed in a pond with an 
abundance of fish, in one year devoured all but one, which 
was a carp weighing nine pounds, and he had taken a piece 
out of him. Poor satisfaction would it be for any of the finny 
tribe to promenade down the stream with this voracious ani- 
mal, and to have the peculiar satisfaction of being devoured at 
once without sauco, or perhaps gradually consumed by a 
piece out of the back or tail at intervals. No amusement, as 
the song goes, 
* Like the trout and the salmon, 
Sitting down playiug a nico daccnt, agreeable, pleasant, sociable 
gaino of backgammon.’ 
No wonder they have no company, or are not sociable ; they 
should stay by themselves and prefer the Angler’s hook, by 
all means, and keep away from evil associates, that they may 
“ come smokiug,” according to Barker’s rules, “as a viand 
