2 THE SMALL-MOUTHED BASS 



States, but refers to others who said that it had been caught 

 in some places in the State of New York. 



There is evidence, also, that in 1854, W . \V . Shriver put 

 the first bass into the Potomac ; and that there were no bass 

 in the State of New York prior to the opening of the Erie 

 Canal in 1825. 



If we probe still further back into the past, we find that 

 the Jesuit missionaries first used, in 1655, the word achigan 

 to designate this fish; and, in view of the fact that this is 

 of Ojibway origin, and that the Ojibway tribe were, at that 

 period, inhabitants of the northern shores of Lake Huron 

 and Lake Superior, it seems probable that the bass were 

 natives of these waters. 



It may be noted here that the word achigan is still used 

 in its original sense by the French-Canadians; it corresponds 

 exactly to the French word bas, meaning a stocking. Whether 

 or not it w^as applied to the bass by the Ojibways, from any 

 similarity of form, or of pronunciation, is an interesting 

 question for philologists. 



It is to be noted, also, that Claude Dablon, who was a 

 careful observer of Nature, states, in his relation oi 1671, that 

 the region about Lake Huron was the most noted for its 

 abundance of fish, since, as he says in savage parlance, this 

 is its native country. (C'est la on est son pays.) 



It is to be supposed that he includes, in this statement, 

 the achigan, with which he was perfectly familiar. 



In addition to the foregoing facts, exact scientific in- 

 vestigation shows that the small-mouthed bass, unlike its 

 relative, the large-mouthed bass, flourishes only in clean 

 water of a temperature var}dng from 50° F. to 60° F. 



If the temperature changes, even a few degrees, outside 

 of these limits, the fish rapidly disappear. 



It is for this reason that its habitat is bounded by well- 

 defined isothermal lines, and that it seldom occurs in the cold 

 waters of Lake Superior or of the northern portion of Lake 



