SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF THE BLACK BASS 55 



might have discovered that this figure had, as Lacepede 

 says, a " very large mouth ; " and tliat while the large- 

 mouthed Black Bass, .or "Trout" is ^^ very abundant" in 

 Carolina waters, the small-mouthed BlacK Bass is appar- 

 ently unknown, at least in the vicinity of Charleston, 

 where Bosc collected. 



As an angler, I have fished fi^r the Black Bass in all the 

 South Atlantic States, from Maryland to Florida ; and 

 while I have found the large-mouthed Bass " very abun- 

 dant " in all parts of North Carolina, South Carolina, and 

 Georgia, I never took a single small-mouthed Bass in either 

 of these latter states within a hundred miles of the coast. 

 I have taken it in the hill-country of each of these states, 

 about the head- waters of the rivers flowing into the At- 

 lantic, but I doubt very much if it is found anywhere in 

 the lowland region of that section of country. 



Professor E. D. Cope, who fished the streams of North 

 Carolina, in the autumn of 1869, from the Cumberland 

 Mountains to the sea, found the large-mouthed Bass, 

 "abundant in all the rivers of the state," but failed to find 

 the small-mouthed Bass, except in the Alleghany region of 

 the extreme, western part of the state ; and says that it is 

 " apparently not found east of the great Water-shed."* 



If the small-mouthed Black Bass inhabits the Atlantic 

 slopes of North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia, Dr. 

 Holbrook would have known it; for there has been no 

 ichthyologist before or since his time, who understood the 

 structure and habits of the " Carolina Trout " so well, or 

 caught more of them. The best description, and the best 



* A Partial Synopsis of the Fresh Water Fishes of North Carolina. 

 By E. D. Cope, A.M. <Pro. Am. Phil. Soc., p. 450, 1870. 



