42 AMERICAN FISHES. 



and delving among the holes, in search of delicacies. The best Cass grounds 

 in the North are usually covered by water twenty to fifty feet deep, while 

 off Charleston they are from sixty to one hundred and twenty feet below 

 the surface. 



Throughout the whole region of its distribution the species usually occurs 

 near the shore, and also in spots of medium depth, where suitable feeding- 

 grounds occur. In the Gulf of Mexico they are often found in very shoal 

 water ; indeed, all along the Southern coast the young fish are found close 

 in to the shore, and I have seen a great many taken with hook and line 

 from the sea-wall at St. Augustine. The temperature of the water affected 

 by this species and by the red snapper corresponds very closely, and in 

 most instances is probably not less than 50 , though on the coast of Con- 

 necticut and New York it may be slightly lower. 



The Sea-Bass is a bottom-feeding and a bottom-loving fish, and, it may 

 be said, rarely comes to the surface. This rule has exceptions, however, 

 for Mr. Charles Hallock writes : "Although the Sea-Bass is a bottom fish, 

 yet once on an outward-bound voyage to the southward of the Gulf Stream 

 we made fast to a ship's lower mast, found drifting on the surface, which 

 was covered with clams and barnacles and surrounded with Sea-Bass. We 

 caught all that we wanted and cut loose. They weighed from five to 

 twelve pounds each, and were all male fish." Whether or not those 

 occurring in northern waters migrate southward in winter, or merely go 

 into deeper water, is not yet ascertained. According to Capt. Edwards 

 and Capt. Spindle, they make their appearance in the Vineyard Sound 

 from the 1st to the 20th of May up to the 10th of June. Capt. Spindle 

 states that no stragglers are ever seen in April. Capt. Edwards declares, 

 on the other hand, that they are found in that region in the winter, and I 

 find in my note-book a statement that they have been taken in the Vine- 

 yard Sound in the winter by Thomas Hinkley and others. A careful 

 study of their habits would form an important contribution to zoology. 



They are somewhat sluggish in their habits. The temperature of the 

 body is low, being very nearly that of the surrounding water, and their 

 digestion is slow. Although very eager feeders at times, they seem much 

 less fat than bluefish of the same size, and their growth is less rapid. They 

 seldom leave the bottom, and there is as yet no evidence that cold weather 

 drives them far from their summer haunts. They retreat, in all probability, 

 into water of greater depth, where they pass the winter in a somewhat 



