Skegger: but these and others, which I forbear to name, may be fish of another kind, and differ as we know a Herring and a Pilchard do, which, I think, are as different as the rivers in which they breed, and must by me be left to the disquisitions of men of more leisure, and of greater abilities, than I profess myself to have.

And lastly, I am to borrow so much of your promised patience as to tell you, that the Trout or Salmon being in season, have at their first taking out of the water, which continues during life, their bodies adorned, the one with such red spots, and the other with such black or blackish spots, as give them such an addition of natural beauty, as, I think, was never given to any woman by the artificial paint or patches in which they so much pride themselves in this age. And so I shall leave them both, and proceed to some observations on the Pike.

Called also a Brandlin. They live in the swiftest streams, and never grow beyond six or eight inches. The bait for these is the Ant-fly or a red worm, as for Gudgeon.--Browne.

CHAPTER VIII.

Observations of the LUCE or PIKE, with Directions how to fish for him.

PISCATOR.

THE mighty Luce* or Pike is taken to be the tyrant, as the Salmon is the king, of the fresh waters. It is not to be doubted, but that they are bred, some by generation, and some not; as namely, of a weed called pickerel-weed, unless learned Gesner be much mistaken: for he says, this weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of the sun's heat, in some particular months, and some ponds apted for it by nature, do become Pikes. But doubtless divers Pikes are bred after this manner, or are brought into some ponds some such other ways as are past man's finding out, of which we have daily testimonies.

Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death, observes the Pike to be the longest-lived of any fresh-water fish and yet he computes it to be not usually above forty years, and others think it to be not above ten years: and yet Gesner mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland, in the year 1449, with a ring about his neck, declaring he was put into that

Three Luces, argent, were the arms of the family of Lucy, of Charlcote, co. Warwick, satirized by Shakspere, in the person of Justice Shallow.--See Merry Wives of Windsor, act i., sc. 1.

pond by Frederick the Second, more than two hundred years before he was last taken, as by the inscription in that ring, being Greek, was interpreted by the then bishop of Worms.* But of this no more, but that it is observed, that the old or very great Pikes have in them more of state than goodness; the smaller or middle-sized Pikes, being by the most and choicest palates observed to be the best meat; and contrary, the Eel is observed to be the better for age and bigness.

All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers, because their life is maintained by the death of so many other fish, even those of their own kind; which has made him by some writers to be called the tyrant of the rivers, or the fresh-water wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devouring disposition; which is so keen, as Gesner relates, a man going to a pond, where it seems a Pike had devoured all the fish, to water his mule, had a Pike bit his mule by the lips, to which the Pike hung so fast, that the mule drew him out of the water; and by that accident the owner of the mule angled out the Pike. And the same Gesner observes, that a maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the foot, as she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have heard the like of a woman in Killingworth pond,t not far from Coven

The story is told by Dr. Hakewill, in his "Apology or Declaration of the Power and Providence of God, &c.," 1630, p. 136. + Kenilworth; the scene of those "Princely Pleasures," when the Earl of Leicester entertained the Maiden Monarch with pageants of Sea Nymphs, and Neptune presented her with the treasures of the deep. The "pool," however, has been long since drained, and its site converted into those beautiful meadows so advantageously viewed from the ruined towers of the castle.

try. But I have been assured by my friend Mr. Seagrave, of whom I spake to you formerly, that keeps tame Otters, that he hath known a 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. I have told you who relate these things, and tell you they are persons of credit; and shall conclude this observation by telling you what a wise man has observed, "It is a hard thing persuade the belly, because it has no ears."

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But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind, that shall be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swallow a part of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth* till the swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that other part that was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees; which is not unlike the ox and some other beasts, taking their meat, not out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into some place between, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees after, which is called chewing the cud. And doubtless Pikes will bite when they are not hungry, but, as some think, even for very anger, when a tempting bait comes near to them.

And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venomous things, as some kind of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed by them: for, as some say, he has in him a natural balsam, or antidote against

* A Pike of a large size was taken in the river Ouse, by fastening on a lesser one, as the person was drawing it out of the water, who thus caught them both.-Browne.

all poison; and he has a strange heat, that, though it appear to us to be cold, can yet digest, or put over, any fish-flesh by degrees, without being sick. And others observe, that he never eats the venomous frog till he have first killed her, and then,—as ducks are observed to do to frogs in spawning time, at which time some frogs are observed to be venomous, -so thoroughly washed her, by tumbling her up and down in the water, that he may devour her without danger. And Gesner affirms that a Polonian gentleman did faithfully assure him, he had seen two young geese at one time in the belly of a Pike. And doubtless a Pike, in his height of hunger, will bite at and devour a dog that swims in a pond; and there have been examples of it, or, the like:* for, as I told you, “The belly has no ears when hunger comes upon it."

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The Pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholy, and a bold fish: melancholy, because he always swims or rests himself alone,† and never swims in shoals or with company, as Roach and Dace and most other fish do; and bold, because he fears not a shadow, or to see or be seen of any body, as the Trout and Chub and all other fish do.

And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones and hearts and galls of Pikes are very medicinable for several diseases; or to stop blood, to abate fevers,

Several pigeons, from a Dove-cot at Weston Underwood, Bucks, were lost by the Pike biting off their heads as they came to drink in the river.-Browne.

The Pike preys upon the lesser sort of his own species. Thus, by an instinct of self-preservation, they are led to avoid one another.-Browne,