HABITS OF THE BLACK BASS. 173 



mouthed), weighing from a half to two pounds; they were 

 nearly dormant. 



" The father of Pension Commissioner Bentley, who lives 

 at Glens Falls, and has some Trout ponds on his place, to 

 gratify a boy bought of him a Black Bass, and placed the 

 fish in a spring. When autumn came the fish was missing, 

 and was supposed to be stolen. During the succeeding winter 

 the spring partly dried up, and to restore the water supply 

 the spring was dug deeper. During the operation it was 

 found necessary to remove an old stump in the side of the 

 spring, when to his surprise the Bass was found under- 

 neath the stump, in a hole, evidently prepared for winter 

 burrow." 



Mr. John Eoff, of Wheeling, West Virginia, a remark- 

 ably close observer, says, in the " Report of the Smithsonian 

 Institution," for 1854 : 



" In the winter season they retire to deep and still water, 

 and apparently hide under rocks, logs, etc., and remain 

 there until the first of April." 



I could multiply evidence on this point, if necessary, 

 but these several opinions, founded upon observations 

 made in the widely separated States of Wisconsin and 

 Minnesota in the northwest, New York in the north, 

 and West Virginia in the middle section of our country 

 must suffice. 



That Black Bass do not hibernate in the extreme South, 

 is well-known ; and to this circumstance, perhaps, may be 

 attributed, in a measure, their larger growth. Still it is 

 not unreasonable to suppose, that the Black Bass of that 

 section have a period of repose and seclusion, analogous 

 to hibernation, at some other season of the year, possibly 

 during the fervid heat of the summer solstice ; for it is 



