FISHES. 389 
Pike, in extreme hunger, fight with one of his otters for 
a carp that the otter had caught, and was then bringing 
out of the water." 
Boulker, in his Art of Angling, says, that his father 
caught a Pike, which he presented to Lord Cholmon- 
deley, that was an ell long-, and weighed thirty-six pounds. 
His lordship directed it to be put into a canal in his gar- 
den, which at that time contained a great quantity of fish. 
Twelve months afterwards, the water was drawn off, and 
it was discovered that the Pike had devoured all the fish, 
except a large carp that weighed between nine or ten 
pounds; and even this had been bitten in several places. The 
Pike was again put in, and an entire fresh stock of fish for 
him to feed on : all these he devoured in less than a year. 
Several times he was observed by workmen who were 
standing near, to draw ducks and other water-fowl under 
water. Crows were shot and thrown in, which he took in 
the presence of the men. From this time the slaughter- 
men had orders to feed him with the garbage of the 
slaughter-house ; but being afterwards neglected, he died, 
as is supposed, from want of food. 
In December, 1765, a Pike was caught in the river 
Ouse, that weighed upwards of twenty-eight pounds, and 
was sold for a guinea. When it was opened, a watch with 
a black riband and two seals were found in its body. 
These, it was afterwards found, had belonged to a gentle- 
man's servant, who had been drowned in the river about 
a month before. 
The Pike is a very long-lived fish. In the year 1497, 
one was caught at Heilbrun in Swabia, to which was 
affixed a brazen ring, with the following words engraved 
on it in Greek characters : " I am the fish, which was first 
of all put into this lake, by the hands of the governor of 
the universe, Frederick the Second, the fifth of October, 
1230." 
