172 BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



I have for years tried all depths of water to raise one, or 

 to discover one, but have tlius far failed. I must believe, 

 then, that they hibernate." 



Genio C. Scott, in " Fishing in American Waters," 

 quotes an intelligent and veteran Black Bass angler of 

 Central New York, in regard to this habit, and \vho fur- 

 nishes the following conclusive evidence : — 



" I have never known them [Black Bass] to be taken in 

 winter, and I think they seek a particular location and 

 remain torpid during winter. My attention was directed 

 to this fact about thirty years since. At that time I was 

 in the habit of spearing fish in a mill-dam on the outlet of 

 Seneca Lake, at Waterloo, Seneca County, New York. 

 From April to November I found numbers of Bass; from 

 December to March I found all other varieties, but no 

 Bass. 



"In the winter of 1837, the water Avas shut off at the 

 lake for the purpose of deepening the channel to improve 

 the navigation. This was considered a favorable time to 

 quarry the limestone in the bed of the river; and upon 

 moving the loose rock in the above-named mill-dam, Avhere 

 the ledges cropped out, there were found hundreds of Bass 

 imbedded in their slime, and positively packed together in 

 the crevices and fissures of the rocks. My subsequent 

 experience has done much to convince me that my theory 

 is correct." 



On this point, A. N. Cheney, Esq., of Glens Falls, New 

 York, related to me the following incidents: — 



"A few years ago a man, Seth Whipple, living on the 

 Hudson River, near Glens Falls, in drawing some sunken 

 logs from the river, during the winter, for firewood, found 

 in the hollow of one of the logs, six Black Bass (small- 



