INTRODUCTION 



from San Francisco, ten anglers caught 1,200 

 pounds of bass on a single tide. One of the 

 party said: 



" I never saw the like ; they fill the water like a drove of 

 sheep. It is dangerous to drive them inshore in shallow 

 water with small boats. . . . Driven to the limit, they 

 turned to seek deeper water, and in their attempts to 

 escape many jumped upon the banks and some into the 

 boats. . . . We had to finally seek deep water for safety, 

 put to ignominious flight by a horde of striped bass." 



The striped-bass angler on the Atlantic coast is 

 never obliged to apologize for such a commercial 

 catch, as the fish are nowhere plentiful enough to 

 make it possible; but the bass are not always as 

 far away from New York waters as one might 

 suppose, and the initiated know where some of 

 them are to be found even in the winter months. 



It is not within the province of this chapter to 

 discuss fishing-grounds and modes of capture of 

 the fresh-water basses: all such topics and more 

 will be handled in his own inimitable style by 

 Mr. William C. Harris, whose name is a sufficient 

 introduction for anything he proposes to write. 

 Neither is it intended to dwell upon the beauties 

 of form, color, and motion to be observed in per- 

 fection among the basses : Mr. Rhead will portray 

 these attributes with the same fidelity and affection 

 which characterized his recent work upon that fairy 



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