GENERAL AND SPECIAL FEATURES. 33 



come better acquainted with them, and have handled them till my 

 arm has been tired out. I am not going to say they are not good, 

 hard fighters for a while, but they seem to lose heart in the strug- 

 gle after a few rushes, and it would be hard to convince me that 

 they are any thing like the equal of the small-mouth in dash, 

 tireless vigor of action, and every thing that counts in the make- 

 up of a thoroughly game fish." 



" Dubuque," of Dubuque, Iowa, has this to say : 



"For the past twenty years I have taken these fishes in the 

 Mississippi river with rod and reel, and while I have found indi- 

 viduals of both species which were lacking in game qualities, I 

 have also found those which excelled in them. I have taken the 

 big-mouth when I thought its gameness could not be excelled, 

 and again when it came in like a stick. The same can be said of 

 the small-mouth. As a rule, I think that your opinion that these 

 fishes do not fight in proportion to their weight when they are 

 above two pounds in weight, is correct, but there are individual 

 exceptions even to this. 



" Last week I took several of each species, and before bring- 

 ing them to net took note of their gameness in advance of know- 

 ing the species, and in my opinion it is impossible for one to de- 

 termine, with any degree of accuracy, which fish has been hooked 

 Ly its fighting qualities, when fishing in the Mississippi river." 



I think that the general opinion in Central New York is 

 in favor of the small-mouthed Bass as a game fish, or that 

 this opinion is more pronounced in that section than in any 

 other with which I am acquainted. There is evidently 

 something wrong with the large-mouthed Bass of the men- 

 tioned locality, for Ira Wood says of this species, in Kin- 

 derhook lake, near Albany : 



" The lake is shallow, muddy and warm, and the fish are all 



