NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[Under this Department Heading queries relative to Angling, Ichthyology and Fish Culture 
will be answered. | 
The Eel ys. the Black Bass. 
Until recently, we have always believed 
that the black bass was a fit antagonist for 
any fish of its size and weight, particularly 
during the spawning season, when parental 
love or solicitude for the life of its young 
seems to imbue it with an increase of vigor 
and combativeness should a fish of another 
species approach the bed, where the eggs are 
lying, or the young fry huddling, under the 
restraining and watchful care of the parent 
fish. But recently we met at Royce’s choice 
hostelry, in the mountains of Sullivan County, 
an observant angler, Mr. O. M. Cleveland, of 
Newburgh, N. Y., who said that during a 
recent visit to Pleasant Lake, in the above 
named county, he noted that the black bass 
were unusually scarce on their customary feed- 
ing grounds, so much so that he determined to 
examine their spawning beds, and to his sur- 
prise found many of these fish still watching 
their eggs, and, in some cases, the newly 
hatched out fry. On observing closely, he 
found on many of the beds large eels working 
and squirming in the gravel of the nests, 
evidently eating the eggs of the bass, which, 
in some instances, had apparently deserted 
the beds, or else were leisurely swimming 
around the outskirts of them. Mr. Cleveland 
commendably, and with the spirit that should 
animate every true angler, procured a spear 
and impaled as many of these spawn-destroy- 
ing eels as possible under the existing con- 
ditions. 
We can come to but one conclusion in ex- 
planation of the apparent apathy of the parent 
bass, which, in this case, seemed to have lost 
all their usual solicitude for the well-being of 
their eggs, and to have become, from the most 
combative fish of fresh waters, the most sub- 
dued and powerless of allof them. They had 
discovered their utter inability to prevent the 
bottom-crawling eel from getting on their 
nests. These squirmy fellows would under- 
mine the bed, and, by sticking to the bottom, 
rendered the otherwise ferocious bass helpless 
to assault them—the latter fish in fighting 
always use the strong spines of their first 
dorsal fin, which were useless to assail this 
ground-hugging marauder of the nests. 
We hope that all anglers will follow Mr. 
Cleveland's praiseworthy course, and make it 
a special duty to examine their favorite bass 
waters, and spear every eel they find on the 
spawning beds of these fish. So far as our 
knowledge at present extends, these facts 
open up anew danger to the increase of the 
black bass, and, in one instance coming under 
our observation, may account for the utter 
failure of- this fish to increase in numbers, 
when all the conditions of water and food 
supply were favorable to their growth and 
natural propagation. —Ep. 
Effect of Change of Habitat on Trout. 
In your very interesting answer in the 
August number of the THE ANGLER to the 
queries of L. H. D. about fly fishing for black 
bass, you state that ‘difference in habitat 
will affect, measurably, coloration and,even in 
slight degree, the physical structure of fisk.” 
In my limited experience I have seen instances 
of this which puzzle me. 
I have seen trout taken from neighboring 
waters, so different that itis hard to believe 
that they are true relations. For instance, in 
two small but beautiful lakes, one in Ulster, 
the other in Delaware county, N. Y., both of 
which empty into the Beaverkill, I have taken 
trout which were uniformly long, slim, highly 
colored, with the red spots much larger than 
those found in the river, and with pink flesh 
almost like that of salmon. 
Now, the Beaverkill trout vary in shape: 
some are fat and well favored, and occasion- 
ally you will find a long, lean one, and the 
color also varies, as everyone knows, even in 
adjacent pools. But these trout from the 
lakes look decidedly different from any Beaver- 
kill trout, and different even from those found 
in the outlets of the lakes. 
I once spent a couple of days with a friend 
on his preserve on Long Island. We fished 
in a pond. Here again the trout were so 
totally different from those in the mountain 
region, either in lake or stream, that it was 
hard to realize that they are of the same 
species. These Long Island fish, especially 
the larger ones, looked more like black bass 
than trout in shape. Their color was less 
bright, but that, of course,is easily accounted for. 
