408 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Bass" and "Black Fish." If this was true at the time of Storer's writing, the usage has since then 

 undergone a very considerable change. The species should be carefully distinguished from the 

 Black-fish of Long Island Sound, which is the tautog, a member of a very different family. 



It is claimed by some writers that the Black-fish of the South is distinct from the Sea Bass of 

 the North. This seems improbable, but is worthy of investigation. The chief advocate of this 

 idea was Holbrook, in whose "Ichthyology of South Carolina" may be found a statement of the 

 supposed differences. 1 



The geographical range of the Sea Bass, as at present understood, is as follows: It is at home 

 in all the waters between the Vineyard Sound and the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico. Stearns 

 writes that it is rather abundant at a few places on the Gulf coast of Florida, where there are 

 rocks and rocky bottoms. In Pensacola Bay they are seen round the piles of stone ballast that 

 lie in shoal water, and also at sea on the fishing grounds near the entrance. They occur in some 

 places in Saint Andrew's, Saint Joseph's, and Apalachicola Bay. South of these places there is 

 more or less rocky bottom, showing either in reefs or in channel-beds, on which Sea Bass are found 

 in abundance. In the vicinity of Saint Mark's, Cedar Keys, and Saint Martin's Reef are some of 

 the best localities. " It is rarely or never," says Jordan, " seen on the sandy coast of Texas." 

 This species has already been recently discovered north of Cape Cod. Previous to 1878 there 

 were on record only four instances of its occurrence east of Monomoy, but in the summer of 

 1878 several were taken in the Milk Island weir, off Gloucester. There is reason to believe 

 that fifty years ago the Sea Bass was much less abundant in Southern New England than it is 

 now. In Linsley's catalogue of the fishes of Connecticut, published in 1842, the species is described 

 as a great novelty. It is curious, however, that some time between 1830 and 1840 there were, 

 according to Storer, fifty or sixty vessels fishing for Sea Bass in the Vineyard Sound. 



In 1787, if Schoepf is to be believed, they were rarely seen in the New York market. A 

 diligent search through the works of the early writers on the fisheries of New England fails to bring 

 to light any allusion to them. It would be interesting to know whether there has actually been 

 an increase in their abundance, or whether this increase has been, as it seems to have been in the 

 case of the Spanish mackerel, due to the introduction of new modes of fishing or the discovery of 

 new fishing grounds. Sea Bass live among the rocky ledges and " spots of ground " which 

 abound along the entire outer coast from Cape Cod to Cape Florida, and in the North it is also 

 found in the large bays and sounds, like Long Island Sound. In the North the best bass grounds 

 are in seven to twelve fathoms of water; off Charleston they are at a depth of twenty to forty 

 fathoms, though throughout this whole region the fish are found also close to shore, and at all 

 intermediate depths where suitable feeding grounds occur. In the Gulf of Mexico, on the other 

 hand, they are found, for the most part, in shoal water; indeed all along the Southern coast the 

 young fish are found close in to the shore, and I have seen a great many taken with hook and line 

 from the sea wall at Saint Augustine. The temperature of the water affected by this species and 

 by the red snapper corresponds very closely, and in most instances is probably not less than 50, 

 though in the case of the banks of Connecticut and New York it may be slightly lower. 



The Sea Bass is a bottom-feeding and a bottom-loving fish, and rarely comes to the surface. 2 

 Whether or not those occurring in northern waters migrate southward in winter, or merely go into 

 deeper water, is not yet ascertained. According to Captain Edwards and Captain Spindle, they 



1 HOLBROOK : Ichthyology of South Carolina, page 49. 



'An exception to this has been recorded by Mr. Charles Hallock, who writes: "Although the Sea Bass is a bottom 

 Ash, yet once on an outward-bound voyage to the southward of the Gull Stream we made fast to a ship's lower mast, 

 found drifting on the surface, which was covered with clams and barnacles and surrounded with Sea Bass. We 

 caught all that we wanted and cut loose. They weighed from five to twelve pounds each, and were all male fish." 



