[Illustration: THE PIKE. (_Esox lucius._)] THE body of this fish is a pale olive-grey, deepest on the back, and marked on the sides by several yellowish spots or patches; the abdomen white, slightly spotted with black; its length is from one to eight feet, and its weight from one or two to forty or fifty pounds. The flesh is white and firm, and considered very wholesome; the larger and older it is, the more it is esteemed. There is scarcely any fish of its size in the world that in voracity can equal the Pike.[A] It lives in rivers, lakes, and ponds; and in a confined piece of water will soon destroy all other fish, as it generally does not feed upon anything else, and often swallows one nearly as big as itself; for through its greediness in eating, it takes the head foremost, and so draws it in by little and little at a time, till it has swallowed the whole. A gudgeon of good size has been found in the stomach of a large Pike, the head of which had already received clear marks of the power of digestion, whilst the rest of the fish was still fresh and unimpaired. [A] Mr. Boccius has, however, shown that the Trout is even more voracious. “I have been assured (says Walton) by my friend Mr. Seagrave, who keeps tame otters, that he has 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.” Boulker, in his Art of Angling, says, that his father caught a Pike, which he presented to Lord Cholmondeley, that was an ell long, and weighed thirty-six pounds. His lordship directed it to be put into a canal in his garden, 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 and 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 slaughtermen 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 gentleman’s servant, who had been drowned in the river about a month before.