单项选择题

TEXT D
The mighty Lace or Pike is taken to be the Tyrant, as tile Salmon is the King, of the fresh waters. It’s not to be doubted but that they are bred, some by generation, and some not: as namely, of a weed called Pickerel -weed, unless learned Gesner be much mistaken; for he says, this weed and other glutinous matter, with the help of the sun’s heat in some particular months, and some ponds apted for it by nature, do become Pikes. But doubtless divers Pikes are bred after this manner, or are brought into some ponds some such other ways as are past man’s finding out, of which we have daily testimonies.
Sir Francis Bacon, in his "History of Life and Death," observes the Pike to be the longest - lived of any fresh -water fish, and yet he computes it to be not usually above forty years; and others think it to be not above ten years: and yet Gesner mentions a Pike taken in Swedeland in the year 1449 ,with a ring about his neck, declaring he was put into that pond by Frdderick the Second, more than two hundred years before he was last taken, as by the inscription in that ring, being Greek, was interpreted by the then Bishop of Worms. But of this no more, but that it is observed that the old or very great Pikes have in them more of state than goodness; the smaller or middle - sized Pikes being by the most and choicest palates observed to be the best meat: and, contrary, the eel is observed to be the better for age and bigness.
All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers, because their life is maintained by the death of so many other fish ,even those of their own kind ;which has made him by some writers lo be called the Tyrant of the Rivers, or the Fresh - Water - Wolf, by reason of his bold ,greedy ,devouring disposition; which is so keen, as Gesner relates, a man going to a pond, where it seems a Pike had devoured all the fish ,to water his mule, had a Pike bit his mule by the lips; to which the Pike hung so fast, that the mule drew him out of the water, and by that accident the owner of the mule angled out the Pike. And the same Gesner observes, that a maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the foot as she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have heard the like of a woman in Killingworth Pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been assured by my friend Mr. Seagrave, of whom I spake to you formerly, that keeps tame Otters, that he hath 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. 1 have told you who relate these things, and tell yon they are persons of credit; and shall conclude this observation by telling you what a wise man has observed:" It is a hard thing to persuade the belly, because it has no ears."
A Pike has, been observed to live, according to Gesner, as long as ______.