This artical was lifted from the Sheffield and Rotherham Independent dated 10th March 1866. So next time you fall into the water, forget about Jaws the shark and think about jaws the Pike!
REMARKABLE ENCOUNTER WITH A PIKE.
Mr Chomondley Pennell, in a work which he has just published on the habits of the pike, gives the following curious statement from a letter addressed to him by Mr. George Longhurst, of Sunning Hill. "One of my sons, aged 15, went with three other boys to bathe in Inglemere Pool, near Ascot Racecourse. He walked gently into the water to about the depth of four feet, when be spread out his hands to swim. Instantly a large fish came up and took his hand into his mouth and clamp on the wrist, but, finding he could not swallow it, relinquished his hold, and the boy, turning round, prepared for a hasty retreat out of the pond."
"His companions, who saw it, also scrambled out of the pond as fast as possible. My son had scarcely turned himself round, when the fish came up behind him and immediately seized his other hand, crosswise, inflicting some very deep wounds on the back of it ; the boy raised his first bitten, and still bleeding hand, and struck the monster a hard blow on the head, when the fish disappeared. The other boys assisted him to dress, bound up his hand with their handkerchiefs, and brought him home. We took him down to Mr. Brown, surgeon, who dressed seven wounds in one hand ; and SO great was the pain next day that the lad fainted twice. The little finger was bitten through the nail, and it was more than six weeks before it was well. The nail came off, and the scar remains to this day."
"A few days after this occurrence, one of the woodsmen was walking by the side of the pond, when he saw something white floating. A man, who was passing on horseback, rode in, and found it to be a large pike in a dying state; he twisted his whip round it and brought it to shore. Myself and son were immediately sent for to look at it, when the boy at once recognised his antagonist. The fish appeared to have been a long time in the agonies of death; and the body was very lean and curved like a bow. It measured 41 inches, and died the next day, and, I believe, was taken to the Castle at Windsor."
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