DESCRIPTION OF THE BLACK BASS. 251 



Brook Trout, the Salmon Trout, and the true Salmon, the sport 

 which he affords when thus hooked can be very readily 

 imagined; nor can he be brought to the basket by anything 

 short of the best tackle, and the most delicate and masterly 

 manipulation. 



In colour, this fish is of a dusky bluish black, sometimes 

 with bronze reflections, the under parts bluish white, the cheeks 

 and gill-covers nacrous, of a bluish colour. 



The body is compressed. Back arched and gibbous. Profile 

 descending obliquely to the rostrum, which is moderately pro- 

 longed. Scales large, truncated. Scales on the operculum 

 large ; a single series on the sub-operculum, much smaller on the 

 pre-oper'culum, ascending high up on the membrane of the soft 

 dorsal and caudal fins. Eyes large ; nostrils double. Operculum 

 pointed, with a loose membrane. The lower jaw is somewhat 

 longest. The jaws are smooth and scaleless. Both jaws are 

 armed with a broad patch of minute conic acute recurved teeth. 

 An oblong patch of rasp-like teeth on the vomer, and a band of 

 the same kind on the palatines. Branchial arches minutely 

 toothed. Pharyngeal teeth in rounded patches. 



The dorsal fin is composed of nine stout spines ; the second 

 dorsal of one spine and fourteen soft rays. The pectorals have 

 eighteen soft rays ; the ventrals, one spine and five soft rays ; the 

 anals, three spines and twelve soft rays ; and the caudal, sixteen 

 soft rays. 



It is somewhat doubtful to me whether the fish known in the 

 waters of Lake Erie, and those generally above the Falls, 

 as the Oswego Bass, is not distinct from this fish, though it is 

 also occasionally called Black Bass. There is very evidently 



