46 



SUPPLEMENT TO THE BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



been charged to the Black Bass. But, while the Bass will 

 take in a young shad or salmon if it comes his way when 

 hungry, he will not make them special objects of pursuit, 

 like the canine-teethed fishes above named. 



The failure to restock such streams, if any such failure 

 exists, must be attributed to other causes than the intro- 

 duction of the Black Bass, prominent among which is the 

 unrelenting pursuit of the young fry. by the predatory 

 fishes mentioned. They are only exceeded in their destruc- 

 tiveness by the genus Homo, with his miles of gill-nets at 

 the mouths of the streams, to prevent the return of the 

 shad or salmon during the breeding season ; arid should 

 a few run the gauntlet arid succeed in depositing their 

 spawn in the upper reaches of the rivers, the eels, bullheads 

 and suckers take good care of it. All of which is truly 

 deplorable, and deplorably true. But in your just and 

 righteous indignation do not make a scape-goat of so good 

 a fellow as the Black Bass. 



In Western waters where the Bass exists with the usual 

 varieties of fishes, there is no perceptible decrease in the 

 numbers of either. If any species suffers it is always the 

 Black Bass on account of over-fishing, spearing, etc. I 

 know of isolated lakes in Wisconsin where the Black Bass 

 has co-existed with the cisco (one of the salmon family), 

 longer than the memory of man runneth to the contrary, 

 without a decrease of the latter fish. If then the Bass can 

 not " get away with" the cisco in confined waters, how can 

 he " clean out" the shad or salmon in large flowing streams? 

 Moreover, I know of a small stream that abounded in Black 

 Bass and crawfish, into which brook-trout were introduced 

 to the discomfiture of the former fish, for the trout increased 



