GENERAL AND SPECIFIC FEATURES. 141 



hooks a large-mouthed Bass weighing four or five pounds, 

 and is surprised, probably, that it " fights " no harder or 

 perhaps not so hard as the smaller fish in fact, seems 

 " logy " ; he, therefore, reiterates the cry that the small- 

 mouthed Bass is the gamest fish. 



But, now, if he next succeeds in hooking a large- 

 mouthed Bass of the same size as the first one caught, he 

 is certain that he is playing a small-mouthed Bass until it 

 is landed, when to his astonishment it proves to be a large- 

 mouthed Bass; he merely says, " he fought well for one of 

 his kind," still basing his opinion of the fighting qualities 

 of the two species upon the first two caught. 



Perhaps his next catch may be a small-mouthed Bass of 

 four pounds, and which, though twice the weight of the 

 large-mouthed Bass just landed, does not offer any greater 

 resistance, and he sets it down in his mind as a large- 

 mouthed Bass; imagine the angler's surprise, then, upon 

 taking it into the landing net, to find it a small-mouthed 

 Bass, and one which, from its large size and the angler's 

 preconceived opinion of this species should have fought 

 like a Trojan. 



Now, one would think that the angler would be some- 

 what staggered in his former belief; but no, he is equal to 

 the occasion, and in compliance with the popular idea, he 

 merely suggests that " he is out of condition, somehow," or 

 "was hooked so as to drown him early in the struggle;" 

 and so, as his largest fish will necessarily be big-mouthed, 

 and because they do not fight in proportion to their size, 

 they are set down as lacking in game qualities of course, 

 leaving the largest small-mouthed Bass out of the calcula- 

 tion. 



Gentle reader, this is not a case of special pleading, nor 



