SOME EARLY NOTES ON STRIPED BASS. 



BY D. B. FEARING. 



In collecting data for a history of the striped bass, I have 

 come across a few remarks concerning him, amongst the early 

 JSTew England writers that may be of interest to the members of 

 the American Fisheries Society : 



The striped bass, as he is called here^ received his scientific 

 name of lineatus, from Bloch, in the latter part of the Eigh- 

 teenth Century. 



William Wood in 'New England's Prospect (London 1635) 

 gives "Suggig" as the Indian word for ''a Basse." 



Josiah Cotton, in his "Indian Vocabulary," gives as the 

 equivalent of "a bass," "qunnammag." 



DeWitt Clinton, in a note to his introductory address, before 

 the Literary & Physiological Society of New York, delivered in 

 1814, states that ''Basse is a Dutch word, signifying Perch." 



James Mease in a paper read before the same society, says 

 that "Tlie largest rock fish, that is, those that weigh from twen- 

 ty-five to sixty pounds, are called 'Grreenheads ;" he also called 

 them 'streaked basse.' " 



Storer in his History of the Fisheries of Massachusetts says 

 that "the larger striped bass are called squid-hounds, from the 

 voraciousness with wliich tlicy will take a squid, when used as 

 bait." 



There is a tradition that there were but ten species of fishes, 

 known to the Dutch when they discovered America; that when 

 they caught a shad, they named the fish "Elf t," or eleventh ; the 

 bass, "Twalf t," or twelfth ; and the drum, "Dertienen," or thir- 

 teenth. 



He is found as far north as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and aj 

 far south as the CtuK of Mexico, on the Atlantic coast, and since 

 his introduction to Pacific wat-ers, in 1879, he has become com- 

 nioii around San Francisco. He is usually called striped has? 

 from Xew Jersey, north ; from New Jerse}', south, he is known 

 as the rock, rock fish or rock bass. 



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