44 SUPPLEMENT TO THE BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



Florida. He flashes his bright armor under the firs and 

 birches of the St. Lawrence basin, and erects liis spiny 

 crest in the grateful shade of the palms and live oaks of the 

 southern peninsula. To him it is given 



" I'd bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 

 In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice.'' 



The character of waters has but little influence upon the 

 distribution of the species, less upon the large-mouthed 

 Bass than upon his small-mouthed congener. If the water 

 is reasonably pure, both species will thrive in it ; but, as 

 has just been intimated, the small-mouthed Bass naturally 

 seeks cooler and clearer waters. Thus, while he is found 

 in the head-waters of certain rivers flowing into the Atlan- 

 tic (notably those of the Alleghany region of the Carolinas, 

 Georgia, and Alabama), co-existing with the large-mouthed 

 Bass, the latter only occurs in the lower portions of the 

 streams. There are several rivers in Hernando county, on 

 the Gulf coast of Florida, that burst out from the base of 

 a sandy ridge running parallel with the coast, and some 

 twelve miles from it, whose sources are large springs, fifty 

 or sixty feet deep, and of half an acre in extent. Their 

 waters are remarkably clear and cool, with a strong current 

 vmtil tide-water is reached ; and I have no doubt but the 

 small-mouthed Bass would thrive wonderfully well in the 

 upper portions of the streams if introduced into them, as 

 the conditions all seem favorable, and the large-mouthed 

 Bass is very abundant in them. 



As we approach tide-water, the small-mouthed Bass dis- 

 appears. The lai'ge-mouthed Bass, however, true to liis 

 cosmopolitan nature, descends the streams to their mouths, 

 where he seems to be as much at home in the brackish 



