ordered to restore to their homes 50 Osages, redeemed by the United States government from Potawatami, and to explore the country. He started on the 15th of July, and went north along the Missouri and the Osage 1nto the present state of Kansas and probably to the Republican river in the south of the present Nebraska, where on the 29th of September he held a grand council of the Pawnees. Then (early in October), turning nearly south, he marched to the Arkansas river, which he reached on the 14th of October, and up which (after the 28th with only 16 men) he went to the Royal Gorge (Dec. 7), having first seen the mountain called in his honour Pike's Peak on the 23rd of November, and then went north-west, probably up Oil Creek from Canon City. In searching for the Red river he came to the South Platte, marched through South Park, left it by Trout Creek pass, struck over to the Arkansas, which he thought was the Red River for which he was searching, and, going south and south-west, came to the Rio Grande del Norte (about where Alamosa, Conejos county, Colorado, is now) on the 30th of January 1807 There on the 26th of February he and a small number of his men were taken prisoners by Spanish authorities, who sent him first to Santa Fé, then to Chihuahua to General Salcedo, and by a roundabout way to the American frontier, where he was released on the 1st of July 1807. He was promoted captain (August 1806), major (May 1808), lieutenant-colonel (Dec 1809) and colonel (July 1812). In 1808 he tried in vain to get an appropriation from Congress for himself and his men. He was military agent in New Orleans in 1809–1810, was deputy quartermaster-general in April–July 1812, and was in active service in the War of 1812 as adjutant and inspector-general in the campaign against York (now Toronto), Canada, and in the attack on York on the 27th of April 1813 was in immediate command of the troops in action and was killed by a piece of rock which fell on him when the British garrison in its retreat set fire to the magazine.
His Account of an Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi and through the Western Parts of Louisiana . . . and a Tour through the Interior Parts of New Spain was published at Philadelphia in 1810, was reprinted and rearranged in London in 1811, and was published in a French version in Paris in 1812, and a Dutch version at Amsterdam in 1812–1813. The standard edition with memoir and notes by Elliott Coues was published in three volumes in New York in 1895 Some of Pike's papers taken from him in Mexico are now in the Mexican archives (Seccion de Asuntos Internacionales taxa 1817–1824), and the more important were published by H. E. Bolton in the American Historical Review, (1907–1908), xiii. 798–827. See the sketch by Henry Whiting in vol. v., series 2, of Jared Sparks's Library of American Biography.
PIKE, fresh-water fishes generally distributed over the rivers and lakes of Europe, northern Asia, and North America, and forming a small family (Esocidae) of soft-rayed fishes. They are read1ly recognized by their elongate compressed body covered
European Pike (Esox lucius)
with small scales, a long head, long and spatulate snout, and very large mouth armed w1th strong and long teeth in the jaws and broad bands of smaller teeth on the palate and tongue. The teeth point backwards or can be depressed so as to offer no obstruction to any object entering the gape, but prevent its withdrawal in the opposite direction The dorsal and anal fins are placed far back on the tail, thus greatly increasing the propelling power of the fish, and, although pike are bad swimmers and lead rather a sedentary than a roving life, they are excelled by no other fresh-water fish in rap1d1ty of motion when, by a single stroke of the tail, they dash upon their prey or dart out of reach of danger. In the Old World one species only is known (Esox lucius), which prefers lakes and sluggish reaches of rivers to strong currents or agitated waters. Its eastward range in northern Asia is not known, it extends into Lapland in the north and 1nto central Italy and the vicinity of Constantinople in the south, but is absent in the Iberian Peninsula. The European species occurs also in North America, and is common in the eastern United States southwards to northern Ohio. But North America is tenanted by other species of pike besides, of which the largest is the muskellunge or maskinonge of the Great Lakes (Esox nobilior), it commonly attains to the large size which is exceptionally recorded of Esox lucius. The other American pike are of smaller size, and generally named "pickerel"; but opinions as to the distinction of the species differ widely among American ichthyologists. The European pike, like its brethren, is the most voracious of fresh-water fishes; it probably exceeds the shark, to which it has been compared by many writers, in the relative quantity of food it consumes. Large specimens will seize rats or water-voles, and are said to attack even foxes and small dogs. Individuals of from 40 ℔ to 50 ℔ are not scarce, but captures of much larger ones are on record. Pike are wholesome food, and much esteemed in inland countries—the smaller (of 20 to 24 in. in length) being preferred to the larger individuals. They are prolific, and not easily exterminated in a water in which they have been once allowed to spawn. Accord1ng to season and climate they spawn in April or May, and sometimes as early as February.
PIKE, a word which, with its collateral forms "pick" and "peak," has as its basic meaning that of anything pointed or tapering to a point. The ultimate etymology is much disputed, and the interrelation of the collaterals is very confused. In Old English there are two forms (pic), one with a long and the other with a short vowel, which give "pike" and "pick" respectively. The first form gave in the 15th century the variant "peak," first with reference to the peaked shoes then fashionable, pekyd schone. In Romanic languages are found Fr. pic, Span. pico, Ital. piccare, to pierce, &c. There are also similar words in Welsh, Cornish and Breton. The Scandinavian forms, e.g. Swed. and Nor. pīk, are probably taken from English. While some authorities take the Celtic as the original, others look to Latin for the source. Here the woodpecker, pīcus, is referred to, or more probably the root seen in spica, ear of corn, and spina, prickle (English spike, spine). The current differentiation in meanings attached to pike, pick and peak are more or less clearly marked, though in dialects they may vary. (1) Pike: Apart from the use as the name of the fish (see above), probably a shortened form of pike-fish, from its sharp, pointed beak, the common uses of the word are for a long hafted weapon with sharply pointed head of iron or steel, the common weapon of the foot-soldier till the introduction of the bayonet (see Spear
and Bayonet), and for a hill with a pointed summit, appearing chiefly in the names of such hills in Cumberland, Westmorland and North West Lancashire. It may be noticed that the proverbial expression "plain as a pike-staff" appears originally as "plain as a pack-staff," the flat plain sided staff on which a pedlar carried and rested his pack. The use of "pike" for a highway, a toll-gate, &c., is merely short for "turnpike." (2) Pick: As a substantive this form is chiefly used of the common tool of the navvy and the miner, consisting of a curved double-ended head set at right angles to the handle, one end being squared with a chisel edge, the other pointed, and used for loosening and breaking hard masses of earth, coal, &c.
(see Tools). The other name for this tool, "pickaxe," is a corruption of the earlier pikoys, Fr. picois, M. Lat. picossum, formed from Fr. pic, the termination being adapted to the familiar English "axe". The sense-development of the verb "to pick" is not very clear, but the following meanings give the probable line: to dig into anything like a bird with its beak, in order to extract or remove something, to gather, pluck, hence to select, choose. (3) Peak: The chief uses are for the front of a cap or hat projecting sharply over the eyes, for the part of a ship's
