MORE GAMY THAN BEAUTIFUL. 281 



distinguish it from other fishes of similar color and apparent 

 organization, it should be remembered that the real black 

 bass has a red speck in each eye like a dot of carmine. It is 

 also more delicate in outline, and has a smaller head than the 

 Oswego and the Southern bass. The black bass spawns in 

 the spring, and, like most fishes which spawn in that season, 

 is not supplied with a sac of nutriment attached to the um- 

 bilical cord. 



The activity and muscular power of the black bass are suf- 

 ficient to enable it to hold its own and increase its numbers 

 in waters inhabited by the most ferocious fresh-water fishes, 

 such as the maskinonge, glass-eyed pike, and the pickerel or 

 pike of the great lakes. 



THE BLACK BASS. Centrarchusfasciatus. De Kay. 



With a view to giving the angler a list of the, principal 

 fishes in the fresh waters of the State of New York, I append 

 the following extract from a letter written by an old, intelli- 

 gent, and successful angler, who has resided in the central 

 part of the state, and fished for the most gamy part of the list 

 of which he writes for more than thirty years. His theory 

 of the black bass hibernating in clefts of rocks is corrobora- 

 ted by other authorities, and is doubtless true. But to the 

 extract.* 



* " In the waters of the St. Lawrence, Ontario Lake, Seneca River, Oneidn 

 and Cayuga Lakes, there are found the Oswego and black bass, very similar 

 in their shape and in some of their habits, so much so that they are often 

 mistaken for one and the same species. The Oswego (sometimes known as 

 the ' river bass') is the heavier fish, often attaining to eight pounds' weight ; 

 are taken at all times during the year, often in winter through the ice. They 

 are good biters, and are game to the last. 



