GEOGRAnilCAL DISTRIBUTION. 43 



much affected by geological foriiiatioiis, climatic influences, 

 or the character of ^vater3 ; for although one or both species 

 may have been absent originally in certain localities, they 

 readily adapt themselves to the waters of these sections 

 when transplanted, and rapidly increase. 



Originally, both species were at home among the primor- 

 dial rocks of the eozoic period of Lake Champlain, North- 

 ern Wisconsin, and along the Appalachian chain in the 

 Carolinas and Northern Georgia. They flourished amid 

 the paleozoic rocks of the Great Lake region and the Mis- 

 sissippi valley, and in the coal measures of the Ohio, Illi- 

 nois, and Missouri river basins; while in the marine 

 tertiary formations of the cenozoic period, along the Atlan- 

 tic and Gulf slopes of the Southern States, the large- 

 mouthed Bass alone occurs. Thus, while the small-mouthed 

 Bass seems to be restricted naturally to the older formations, 

 the larue-mouthed Bass roams at his own sweet will throuo;h 

 the regions of metamorphic and stratified rocks and glacial 

 drift, down to the recently formed coral rocks of the Pe- 

 ninsula of Florida, 



Climatic influences do not seem to affect the distribution 

 of the large-mouthed Bass in any degree, in the L^nited 

 States, and of the small-mouthed Bass only to a small ex- 

 tent. The original habitat of the species extended through 

 twenty-five degrees of latitude and thirty degrees of longi- 

 tude, the small-mouthed Bass alone not occurring in the 

 extreme ten desrrees of southern latitude, and the ten de- 

 grees of extreme western longitude of this range. Thus, 

 while the small-mouthed Bass is naturally restricted to cold 

 and temperate waters, the large-mouthed Bass bids defiance 

 alike to the ice bound streams of Canada, the tropical la- 

 goons of East Mexico, and the sunny streams of Southern 



