MODE OF CAPTURE. 249 



THE BLACK BASS Of THE ST. LAWRENCE. 



Huro Nigricans — Cuvier. Centrarchus Fasciatus — Dekay. Orystes Nigricans — 



Agassiz. 



This is one of the finest of the American fresh- water fishes; 

 it is surpassed by none in boldness of biting, in fierce and 

 violent resistance when hooked, and by a very few only in excel- 

 lence upon the board. 



Peculiar originally to the basin of the St. Lawrence, in which 

 it abounds from the Falls of Niagara downward, if not through 

 its whole course, it has made its way into the waters of the 

 Upper Hudson, through the canals. It is said by Dr. Dekay 

 to be found generally in the small lakes of the state of New 

 York, but I conclude that this must be limited to those which 

 communicate with the great lakes or the St. Lawrence. It is 

 taken abundantly in Lake Champlain, but it is in the swift 

 glancing waters of the St. Lawrence, among the exquisite 

 scenery of the Thousand Islands, that it afi'ords the greatest 

 sport to the angler. 



It bites ravenously at a small fish or spinning-tackle, or at 

 the deadly and murderous spoon, an instrument so certainly 

 destructive that the use of it is properly discouraged by all true 

 anglers as poaching and unsportsmanlike. 



The finest sport can be had, however, with a long light Sal- 

 mon-line, treble-twisted gut, to defy its numerous and exceed- 

 ingly acute teeth, and a large fly, with a body of scarlet chenil 

 and four wings, two of the silver pheasant and two of the scarlet 



