98 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



deposit from a million to two million eggs, which 

 are about one-seventh of an inch in diameter, are 

 free, transparent, and semi-buoyant, and hatch in 

 a few days. Owing to a large oil-drop in the 

 front part of the yolk-sac, the young fry at first 

 swim with the head toward the surface of the 

 water, and not in the horizontal position usual 

 with the fry of most fishes. 



Its food consists of small fishes, crabs, lobsters, 

 shrimps, squids, sandworms, and other marine 

 invertebrates. It grows to a very large size, 

 being frequently taken by anglers from thirty to 

 sixty pounds, and in the nets of fishermen as 

 heavy as one hundred pounds or more. In the 

 city of Baltimore, in boyhood days, I often went 

 to the fish markets on Saturdays to see and ad- 

 mire the various kinds of fishes. On one occa- 

 sion there were several large rockfish being 

 weighed on the old-time balance, consisting of 

 a beam and two large, flat, wooden scales sup- 

 ported by chains. The largest fish did not weigh 

 quite two fifty-six-pound weights. A man then 

 asked me how much I weighed, and I replied 

 one hundred and three pounds. I was then 

 placed on the scale instead of the weights, with 

 the result that the fish outweighed me perhaps 



