AMERICAN ANGLER'S BOOK. 



like teeth in front. Teeth on the palatines and pharyngeal 

 bones. Tongue smooth, without teeth in front. 



They are found in the James River, in the lagoons of the 

 Dismal Swamp, in the Roanoke, and in every fresh-water 

 stream of any size in the Southern Atlantic States ; in the 

 streams and lakes of Florida, and in all the rivers which flow 

 from the north into the Gulf of Mexico along its whole ex- 

 tent. All the creeks and bayous are stocked with them ; so 

 are the lakes formed in the old bed of the Mississippi, wher- 

 ever the river has made a cut-off) though they are seldom or 

 ever taken in the river itself the fish of most families only 

 using it as a high road or thoroughfare from one lake to 

 another. They are also found in the Cheat, Holston, Green, 

 Kentucky, Alabama, Cumberland, Tennessee, and Ohio, and 

 in their tributaries, to their very sources in the highlands and 

 mountains. They are not so plentiful in the streams or their 

 tributaries that fall into the Mississippi on the western side ; 

 but the long still lakes of the alluvial bottom lands on the 

 east side, from the Ohio to Kock River, are stocked with this 

 and other percoids by the occasional overflow of the Mis- 

 sissippi. 



The rivers of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and the streams 

 and clear lakes of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota^ also sup- 

 ply them, with a little variety in form and color. 



This fish is taken generally by still fishing, with a live 

 minnow, and it is only of late years in the Southern States, 

 that anglers have used the spoon, which is found to be very 

 destructive. An accomplished angler of the "Houseless," gave 

 me a glowing description of a party who started from Colum- 

 bia, South Carolina, to fish the Edisto River, in the month of 

 May 1860 ; they used the spoon bait, trolling near the bank 

 under the overhanging branches, each angler occupying a 

 boat paddled by his servant. They collected at night on 



