35 



of tlie pectorals, when, like an armoured knight of old, the fish after 

 poising itself thus for a moment, makes a sudden charge at the object of 

 its attack, repeating it over and over again till the intruder withdraws. 

 Some very fine black bass ai-e to be found in the deep water of the dam 

 above Hogsback on the Rideau, and iu the bays of the Ottawa. The 

 Tiatineau and Lievre ai-e too washy for bass to lie there. In the lakes 

 of tlie Eideau Rivei*, and in the lakes of Ottawa County vei-y large ones 

 are caught, Lake Bernard being perhaps one of the most prolific places. 

 A very large specimen was on exhibition in Mr. Esmonde's window 

 last summer, caught in Lake Bernard, and weighing 5 lbs. 8f oz., being 

 one of, if not the largest, on record here. 



The Oswego or Spotted Bass ( Microliter us SalmoidesJ is somewhat 

 similar to the foregoing, but has a larger head and wants the red spot in 

 the eye. The body also is more oval, and thinner. It abounds in the 

 Rideau Canal, and is found in all the rivers here, but more sparingly. 

 Large ones are taken in. Leamy's Lake weighing up to 2 lbs. The flesh 

 is watery, flaky, and insipid. 



The Sunfish ( Lepomis Gibbosus) which is said to derive its name- 

 from its fondness for basking in the sun in shoal water, is common 

 everywhere except in the sharp running mountain streams of the 

 Laurentian range, and yet I remember once being horribly disappointed 

 when trout fishing below Old Chelsea, at finding after a smart tug at my 

 line in an old disused weir beside an obsolete tannery, a miserable little 

 sunfish instead of tbe expected trout. It may ^e called from its colours 

 a very beautiful fish, is lively and active, and as Jardine says, it vies 

 in beauty and brightness with tropical fishes. It is a veiy amusing 

 subject for an aquarium where it soon asserts its superiority by its 

 boldness, but is very destructive to any soft finned fish therein, 

 persecuting thom whenever they approacli the quarters it has taken up. 

 In its natural state, individuals will sometimes take up a position under 

 a large stone, or at the foot of a rock, and act as a kind of police for a 

 certain distance on either side, darting out with fins bristling and 

 driving away intruders. A prominent feature about the sunfish is a 

 black spot terminating in bright scarlet on the lower end of the gill 

 cover, and its throat and belly are of an orange and gold colour, with 

 occasionally a blueish tinge in certain lights, fi'om which latter it has 



