Dr. Mellerborg, that he had himself seen an enormous Pike, with an Eagle fastened to his back, lying dead on a piece of ground which had been overflowed, but from which the water had then retreated. Captain Eurenius informed the same author that he was once an eye-witness of a similar circumstance. In this instance, when the Eagle first seized the Pike, he succeeded in lifting him for a short distance into the air; the weight of the fish, however, combined with its struggles, soon carried both down again into the water, under which they disappeared. Presently the Eagle was seen at the surface, uttering piercing cries, and apparently making great efforts to extricate its talons; all however were in vain, for after a long continued struggling he finally disappeared in the depths of the river.[1]
In the Swedish rivers the gums of the Pike are said to be periodically subject to a disorder by which they become of so spongy a texture, and so much swollen, that the teeth which are then partially concealed from view, seem scarcely able to perform their function. This change is said always to take place about the time of new moon. The Wermeland fishermen assert that while his gums are in this diseased state, the Pike is almost incapable of devouring his prey, and therefore, at the time mentioned, they hardly take the trouble of laying out their lines; and these simple people assign as the reason for this periodical impotency, that if his teeth were always in good order the Pike would soon eat up all other fishes.[2]
The size, strength, agility, and ferocity of the
