FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



Nova Scotia to South Carolina, the limits of its 

 range coastwise, as the " white perch." It is the 

 Morone americana of the books ; the generic title 

 has never been explained, and the derivation of the 

 specific is patent to the reader, it being exclusively an 

 American fish. Growing to a length of fourteen 

 or fifteen inches, the average being about six or 

 seven, the white perch, when taken from salt, 

 brackish, or fresh waters, is one of our palate-tempt- 

 ing fishes ; and, as a hook-and-line quarry, its fight- 

 ing qualities compare favorably with the rock bass or 

 pike-perch of similar size. Months ago, the writer 

 recorded his experience with this silvered fish : 

 " When taken on a skittered live minnow or a bright 

 fly on a light rod, the white perch fights bravely. 

 Large individuals are caught near the edges of the 

 splatterdocks, and in the eddies around the piers of 

 bridges spanning the creeks in the upper sections 

 of tide-water, and at night on the incoming tide 

 large ones are also taken with worm bait under the 

 same conditions. They have been caught on crab 

 bait in the Chesapeake Bay, in sixty feet of water, 

 the minimum weight of a fish being one pound, 

 and the maximum slightly over two pounds. I see 

 nothing to commend in the method of fishing for 

 perch with * bowlines,' as is practised by many 

 fishermen for the fingerlings which swarm in great 

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