NATURALIZATION OF FISHES. 211 



i 



where only yellow perch, bull pouts, and worthless species 

 are found. The latter would afford food for the new 

 comers. 



The BLACK BASS, of the West and South (Grystes sal 

 moides). There are several varieties of this fish in the 

 waters of the Atlantic states, from the Dismal Swamp and 

 James river to Cape Florida. They abound also in the 

 rivers and bayous communicating with the Gulf of Mexico 

 on both sides of the Mississippi, and are found in all of the 

 waters of the west, thence up to Minnesota with its nu- 

 merous lakes. In the northern part of that state, lakes in 

 close proximity are inhabited, one it may be with bass, and 

 the other with white fish ; the former discharging into the 

 head-waters of the Mississippi, and the latter into streams 

 flowing north towards Hudson's Bay. Occasionally, though, 

 the white fish are found on the southern watershed. 



This species is a more shapely fish than the bass of our 

 northern lakes, resembling it, however, in its habits and its 

 game qualities. The first figure on the engraving at the 

 head of this chapter is a correct picture of this fish. The 

 following account of its introduction into the Potomac was 

 sent to me by my esteemed friend, Dr. Charles D. Meigs, 

 of this city, two or three years ago : 



" About thirteen years since, a son of Mr. Stabler, at that 

 time a conductor on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, hav- 

 ing caught fifteen or twenty pounds of black bass in Wheel- 

 ing creek, secured them in a bag-net, and, putting them 

 into a locomotive tender's tank, carried them safely to Cum- 

 berland, and turned them into the Potomac, all of whose 



