THE STRIPED BASS. 376 



soft shell crab, spearing (a small transparent fish about 

 the size of a minnow), or squid, have to be resorted to ; 

 even the spoon bait has been known to be successful when 

 all other attractions have failed. 



Although this fish annually chooses a change from salt 

 to fresh water, still it is not necessary for his existence, 

 numbers having been experimented on by detaining them 

 for years in fresh, where instead of losing flesh, they were 

 pronounced to have improved much both in size and con- 

 dition. So exceedingly popular is the striped bass in 

 America, that those watering-places in whose vicinity he is 

 known to abound receive annually an immense influx of 

 visitors, attracted chiefly by the prospect of enjoying this 

 fishing. At Kittihunk even a club house has been built, 

 and a very large association formed of the principal gentle- 

 men in and about New York, who spend a great portion of 

 their summer vacation at this retreat, and, as I have been 

 informed by many of the members (some of them salmon 

 fishermen of experience), the sport they there have is only 

 second to what they could obtain on Labrador or Canadian 

 salmon rivers. 



I believe that this fish could be most easily introduced 

 into English waters, and that he is well deserving of the 

 effort, for he is very hardy, and I do not think so likely 

 to be affected by the pollution that so many of our streams 

 suffer from ; they also appear to be immensely prolific, for 

 although traffic, netting, drainage, &c. may have reduced their 

 numbers, still they are to be found in so great abundance, even 

 in such crowded water-thoroughfares as the Bay of New 

 York, Hudson and East rivers, that any person duly 



