Morning journal and courier., 1886-01-15
Water Wolves.

From the London Saturday Review
 l "From the days of Gesner downward, " 1 said MT. Frank Buckland, ''more lies have 1 been told about the pike than any other fish l in the world, " which may be said to be the 1 case with most animals who gifted with 1 any remarkable characteristics, whether | pleasant or otherwise. However, the many l historians of the pike have hitherto kept 1 clear of the supernatural; were-wolves and | ''leups- garou" have no imitators among the fnny tribes A ghostly pike with lambent | eyes and distended jaws is too fearful an idea l to be entertained for moment. But if the l pike historians have refrained from enlarging | on supernatural water wolves, they have by | no means curtailed their imaginations in l their description of the real fish. The Mann
 helm pike that attained length of nineteen 1 feet, and was captured In 1497 at the ad- ! vanced age of two hundred and sixty-seven years, having in it's gills brass ring, on I which was engraved ill Greek, "I am the
 first fish that was placed in this pond by the ] hands of Frederick H., Governor of the World, on the 5th of October, 1a3o," may pike on record. E'Its skeleton and ring were l long preserved in the Cathedral of Mann heim,'' says MT. Pennell in his ''Book of the Pike,' "but upon subsequent examination by clever anatomist it was discovered that the bones had been heightened to fit the sto- ry-in other words that several vertebra had been added. Another writer, M. Passon Maisonneuve, gives US further particulars concerning the ring-namely, that it was of 'gilded brass, and could enlarge itself by
 springs-a highly necessary qualification Gf it's wearer's growth is to be considered), and
 one which would seem not to be confined to this portion of the story alone" Putting aside such like monsters, which seem to be, in the words of Folonius, livery like whale, ,
 most veracious historians agree that the pike
 rarely exceeds forty pounds in weight, at all
 events, in these islands. That he should not
 be allowed to do so from a gastronomieal
 point of view is certain from the fact that
 young pike or jack increases in weight at the
 rate of four pounds per annum during the
 earlier portions of bis life, but that after
 twelve years he diminishes each year by one
 pound to two pounds, rate of diminution
 that increases as his age advances. Young
 pike, therefore, are the best for eating, and
 by connoisseurs those of moderate size are
 much preferred to either small or large fish.
 The ways of cooking pike are as many and
 various as his quality deserves. He can be
 roasted, boiled praised, stuffed, he can be
 disguised "a Ia Chambord," with mush- rooms, onions and cockscombs; "a FEgyp-
 tienne," with ghe1kins, eggs, truffies and port
 wine; Ca le meuniere, :" "a Ia m maitre-d hotel
 Zen matelote," and a hundred other ways; in all of which he is super-excellent. And if he is thus sayory and delightful in his last
 
 praise from the angler who loves true sport when he is alive. He is no miserable little trout, who will even allow himself to be tickled out of his native stream. The an- gler who means to compass the death of a water wolf, ''this solitary, melancholy and bold fish, as Walton calls him, must have iron nerves, for fishermen have been known to "drop their rods in sheer terror" at the first rush of pike on it's prey. As to what that prey may be the pike is not particular. Literally ''all is fish that comes to his'' jaws, with only two exceptions, tench and toad
 There is a fond superstition that accounts for the pike's leniency toward the tsnch on the ground that the latter is the pike's physi- elan; and Camden in his Britannia" was not afraid to say, ''I have seen the bellies of bikes which have been rent open, having their gaping wounds presently closed by the touch of the tench, and by his glutinous slime perfectly healed up." It is true that it would be questionable sanity on the part of the pike to eat his doctor; but the fact that the pike's eyes are on the top of his head, and that the tench lives at the bottom of the 1nuddiest water he can find, may also &C., count for this instance of self-denial on the
 part of the water wolf His own species en-
 joy no immunity from his universal greed, and there is good reason for believing that more young piekerels are devoured by their parents than by all their other enemies put together, not excepting cells, who account to some extent for the enormous difference be-