460 Striped Bass. 



Description of the Commodities and Discommodities of that Coun- 

 trey. Written by a Reuerend Divine (Mr. Higginson), now there 

 resident. London, 1630": 



" Of these fish (the basse) our fishers take many hundreds together, which I have 

 seen lying on the shore to my admiration j yea, their nets ordinarily take more than 

 they are able to hale to land, and for want of Boats and men they are constrained to 

 let a many goe after they have taken them, and yet sometimes they fill two boates at a 

 time with them." 



The famous Captain John Smith, "sometime Governor of Virginia 

 & Admiral of New England," wrote in a little book entitled "Advertise- 

 ments for the Inexperienced Planters of New England, or Anywhere ; 

 or, The Pathway to Experience to Erect a Plantation. London, 163 1 :" 



" The seven and thirty passengers, miscarrying twice upon the coast of England, 

 came so ill provided they only relyed upon the poore company they found, that had 

 lived two yeares by their naked industry and what the country naturally afforded. It 

 is true, at first there hath befine taken a thousand Bayses at a draught, and more than 

 twelve hogsheads of Herrings in a night." 



Sturdy John Josselyn, gent., who never hesitated to use a word 

 because of its strength, writes, in his "Account of Two Voyages to 

 New England in 1675": 



" The Basse is a salt-water fish, too, but most an end (sic) taken in Rivers, where 

 they spawn ; there hath been three thousand Basse taken at a set. One writes that the 

 fat in the bone of a Basse's head is his brains, which is a lye." 



In a curious poetical description of the colony, entitled " Good 

 News from New England, with an exact relation of the First Plant- 

 ing that Countrey," printed in London, 1648, these lines occur: 



"At end of March begins the Spring by Sol's new elivation, 

 Stealing away the Earth's white robe dropping with sweat's vexation, 

 The Codfish, Holybut, and Basse do sport the rivers in, 

 And Allwifes with their crowding sholes in every creek do swim." 



Truly, our ancestors must have had glorious opportunities for 

 sport, though it may be considered doubtful whether those stern- 

 visaged men, whose features had grown grim in facing the hard 

 realities of their pioneer life, — sickness, starvation, and an ever- 



