THE GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 33 



Saltator, and the Striped Bass, Labrax Lineatus, strike at the 

 polished bone, pearl, or .metal squid, as it is termed, of the fisher- 

 man, when it is made to play with a rotatory motion, glancing through 

 the water, in the wake of a swift-sailing boat, or in the surf upon the 

 outer beaches. 



Having now accomplished the dry work of enumerating and classi- 

 fying those of the fish of America, whether fresh or salt-water, which 

 I consider worthy of the sportsman's notice, I shall proceed to describe 

 them more or less briefly, according to the degree of interest attach- 

 ing to their habits, migrations, growth, and breeding; and thereafter 

 to the best and most improved mode of taking them ; best, 1 mean, as 

 regards art, piscatorial science, and sport, not looking to the mere 

 amount of slaughter, but considering in this instance the suaviter in 

 modoj long before the mere fortiter in re. 



And here I will venture to request my reader, who may have pro- 

 ceeded thus far in this volume without finding very much to interest v 

 or enlighten him, not to lay by its pages in disgust; as this portion, 

 necessarily partaking much of the character of a catalogue, can hardly 

 be expected to be very amusing, while I think I can promise that he 

 will find something to awaken his interest, whether he be a scientific 

 naturalist, or a mere sportsman, before he has advanced many pages 

 farther; inasmuch, as thanks especially to the assistance of my good 

 friend Professor AGASSIZ, and other correspondents, I believe I shall 

 have the pleasure of laying before him something that is not only new, 

 but curious and highly interesting concerning the growth, the breed- 

 ing, and the varieties, several of them hitherto undescribed, of the 

 family of Salmon, Scdmomdce, of North America, to the consideration 

 of which I come without farther delay. 



