256 PROPAGATION OF FISH. 



fish Guitarists to attempt their artificial propagation. 

 When the spawning season draws near, they select, guid- 

 ed by natural instinct, with great care for the purpose of 

 propagation, certain portions of the river having a pebbly 

 or gravelly bottom. From these they remove carefully 

 all sediment, weeds, and sticks. This work completed, 

 leaves a clear bright space in the bottom of the river, 

 circular in form, and having a diameter of about three 

 feet. These beds are readily distinguished by the casual 

 observer from the ordinary bottom of the river by their 

 brightness, the gravel having the appearance of being 

 washed or scoured. "When the parent fish are ready to 

 spawn, the female goes upon this prepared bed and de- 

 posits her spawn in a glutinous band or ribbon, running 

 in various directions across the bed. She is followed by 

 the male who impregnates the eggs by the expression of 

 his milt. 



Their care of the young (the exercise of which is pecu- 

 liar to the bass, sunfish, and catfish), taken in connection 

 with the fact that a large pair of bass will deposit twenty 

 thousand eggs, w T ill give some idea of their fertility. 

 Possibly the fish are capable of reproduction when two 

 years old, having at that time attained the extraordinary 

 length of eight or nine inches, but this is mere conjec- 

 ture, based more particularly upon our knowledge of the 

 size and weight of the fish at that age. They frequently 

 attain the weight of five and six pounds ; in rare instances 

 seven and eight. They are unsurpassed in flavor by any 

 of the perch family. 



The black bass loves bright, pure, lively water, not as 

 cold as the trout streams of our spring-producing hills 

 and mountains, but free from foul matters held suspended 



