HABITS OF THE BLACK BASS. 171 



colder climate of the North and West, it has been proven 

 in niimorous instances, that they bury themselves in the 

 niiid, in the crevices of rocks, under masses of weeds, or 

 suid^en logs, in the deepest water, and remain dormant 

 until spring. 



This habit has been doubted by some, inasmuch as an 

 occasional Bass has been caught through the ice; though 

 such instances are rare indeed, and all those of which I 

 have any knowledge occurred late in the winter, or early 

 in the spring. As one swallow does not make a summer, 

 these unusual cases must be considered as merely excep- 

 tions to the general rule. 



During a residence of ten years in Wisconsin, where 

 fishing through the ice was constantly practiced during 

 the winter, and where tons of pickerel, pike-perch and 

 yellow-perch were so taken in a single season, I never 

 knew of a single Black Bass being so taken except very 

 late in the winter, or in early spring, say in March, just 

 before the breaking up of the ice; and even those instances 

 Avere of rare occurrence, and happened only during un- 

 usually mild weather ; and these same waters, be it remem- 

 bered, afforded the finest Black Bass fishing during the 

 summer and fall. 



Dr. D. C. Estes, of Lake City, Minnesota, an accom- 

 plished angler and naturalist, records a similar experience 

 in regard to Lake Pepin ; he says: — 



"The Pike and Pickerel are the only fish taken here in 

 the winter. It is strange to many what becomes of the 

 countless numbers of other game fish that throng these 

 waters in the summer season. Bass, which are so numer- 

 ous then, are never seen in winter. I am quite sure that 

 not a single Bass was ever caught here through the ice. 



