HABITS 



when they reach their spawning beds in the early spring 

 they are covered with snail-shells, leeches, slime and mud. 



Whether or not they return to the same spawning beds 

 every spring is not known ; but, 

 judging from the fact that 

 during their summer migrations 

 they seek periodically well- 

 known feeding grounds, it is 

 probable that, after the man- 

 ner of birds, they frequent from 

 year to year the spawning 

 grounds with which they have 

 become familiar. 



When hooked, they always 

 rush to the top of the water 

 and jump to relieve themselves 

 of the hook, except when 

 they gorge the bait: in this 

 case they "bore" down deep, 



like the salmon trout, seldom approaching the surface. 

 Statements have been made about the great height to which 

 a bass will jump; but from many trials I have made with 

 them, running on a slack line, I think one foot and a half 

 is an outside limit. The fish usually leaves the water at an 

 angle less than forty-five degrees, and, granting that its 

 velocity is ten feet a second, it would be a physical impos- 

 sibility for it to jump much more than one foot in height. 



If, however, the angler is desirous of making it jump 

 higher, he should keep a tight line and use a long stiff rod; 

 he may then have the pleasure of seeing his fish rise as high 

 as four or five feet; but in this case, it is the angler, and not 

 the fish, that does the work. 



The bass does not nibble at a bait, but first approaches 

 and inspects it, then retreats, and suddenly dashes at it 

 from a distance, seizes it at one gulp, and swims steadily 



2 



Black Spruce 



