AMERICAN FISHERIES SOCIETY. 



in very hot salt pork fat. I dare to say that parboiled, then stuffed 

 and baked or roasted, geoduck would prove satisfactory to the 

 daintiest epicure. Mr. Hemphill thinks it tastes somewhat like 

 poached egg, but the taste to me did not suggest that of eggs 

 cooked in any form. If fresh and well cooked it is, as I wrote 

 to Professor Baird in my report, "suitable food for good men of 

 scientific proclivities." IVashi/igion, D. C. 



HIBERNATION OF THE BLACK BASS. 



BY DR. JAMES A. HENSHALL. 



That both species of black bass {Micropterus) hibernate in the 

 northerly part of the country, is a fact too well known to admit 

 of a doubt. But, notwithstanding the evidence heretofore ad- 

 duced in support of this fact, the occasional catching of a black 

 bass during the winter season, in the North and West, is some- 

 times heralded by correspondents of the angling papers as a 

 proof that former observers have been mistaken, and that these 

 fishes, or at least the large-mouthed species, do not hibernate. 

 Perhaps the term hibernation is not well understood by these 

 writers, which may account for their hasty and erroneous con- 

 clusions. 



Hibernation does not necessarily imply, as supposed by some, 

 a state of complete torpidity or profound sleep during the 

 entire winter. To hibernate, according to Webster, is "To 

 pass the season of winter in close quarters, or in seclusion," 

 and that is just what the black bass of both species do in north- 

 ern and western waters, every one who has given the subject 

 any intelligent investigation is prepared to admit. 



Hibernation of animals is influenced, doubtless, by conditions 

 of temperature and food supply, and the duration, extent or 

 degree of this period of repose or seclusion, is augmented or 



