184 SPINY-FINNED FISHES 



number of Calico Bass and crappie had risen to 738,671. 

 The latest figures that make any showing of an annual catch 

 of Strawberry Bass and crappie are as follows: 



Mississippi River and tributaries 



(1903) 1,118,770 pounds, worth $53,224 



Minor interior waters (1900-1903). . 25,030 " " 810 



1,143,800 $54,034 



It seems to me that for stocking northern lakes and ponds 

 this is one of the most desirable of all the smaller fishes; and 

 I wish long life and prosperity to the Calico Bass! 



The Chappie 1 is a muddy-water understudy of the pre- 

 ceding species. In some portions of the North, the two 

 species overlap each other, but in the main the Crappie is a 

 southern fish. 



The Sin fishes are divided into fifteen species, and as a 

 group their range covers the whole of the United Slates east- 

 ward of the Great Plains. Poor indeed in fish life is the 

 pond or stream between Maine and Texas, .Dakota and 

 Florida which contains no siinfish, bream, or blue-gills, pump- 

 kin-seed, or dollaree. In about nine cases out of ten, the 

 first fish that dangles from the first hook-and-line of the very 

 small American angler is a sunfish. Small though it be, and 

 feeble, it is yet a Fish; and it is large enough to open to Child- 

 hood the door to a great wonderwork! of fish and fishing. 

 Where is the veteran fresh-water angler who does not recall 

 the electric thrills of his first "bite," and his first living, 

 wriggling, scintillating sunfish! Blessings be upon their 



1 Po-mnj-'i.s an-nu-lar'is. 



