THE BLACK BASSES 



WHILE both species of black bass, 

 the large-mouth and small-mouth, 

 are indigenous to Canada, Lake 

 Champlain, and western New York, 

 neither species is native to the waters of the 

 Atlantic slope of New England or the Middle 

 States; at an early day, however, they found 

 their way from the Great Lakes, through the 

 canals, to the Hudson River. The absence of 

 the black bass, originally, from New England 

 might seem remarkable, inasmuch as the large- 

 mouth bass abounded in all coast-wise streams 

 from Virginia to Florida. The fact, however, 

 is in accordance with the faunal peculiarities of 

 New England, as compared with the rest of the 

 United States east of the Rocky Mountains. For 

 instance, while more than one hundred genera of 

 fresh-water fish occur in the streams east of the 

 Mississippi River, less than one-fourth of them are 

 found in New England, and of these only about 

 half a dozen genera are represented by more than 

 one species. This state of things was noticed by 

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