426 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



They are particularly abundant at the time of the spring runs of the shad and herring, and at this 

 season are particularly plump and well fed, doubtless owing to the ease with which they can obtain 

 food. They also frequent the rocky shores of the bays and sounds at high tide in search of crabs, 

 shrimps, and squids; and they are said to feed upon clams and mussels, which they obtain by 

 delving with their snouts. 



REPRODUCTION AND GROWTH. They spawn in the late spring and early summer, some of 

 them in the rivers, others probably at sea, although this has not been definitely ascertained. The 

 European Bass are said to deposit their spawn near the mouths of rivers in the summer months. 

 From North Carolina to New Jersey the spawning time appears to be in May; in New Brunswick 

 in June. Dr. Blanding, many years ago, estimated the number of eggs at 2,248,000. Their rate 

 of growth is very rapid. Dr. C. C. Abbott, for five successive years, found in the Delaware River 

 young an inch long in the second week in June. About the middle of October these had grown 

 to the length of four and a half inches. The young fish five to niue inches in length which are 

 taken in such quantities in the Potomac in February and March, are supposed to be the young of 

 the previous year. Captain Gavitt, of Westerly, Rhode Island, has caught Bass in June that 

 weighed from one-half to one pound, put them into a pond and taken them out in the following 

 October, when they weighed six pounds. The average size of this fish probably does not exceed 

 twenty pounds. In the Potomac, Hudson, and Connecticut Rivers the largest seldom exceed 

 thirty or forty pounds, though in the Potomac fifty-pound fish are not unusual. The Fish Commis- 

 sion has for several years had a standing offer of a reward for a sixty-pound fish from the Potomac, 

 but none has been forthcoming as yet. The largest Striped Bass on record was one weighing one 

 hundred and twelve pounds, taken at Orleans, Massachusetts, in the town cove. Such a fish would 

 be at least six feet in length. A fairly proportioned Bass thirty-six inches long would weigh at 

 least eighteen pounds. 



USES. The Striped Bass is one of the most valuable of our food-fishes, its flesh bei'.g firm, finely 

 flavored, and hard enough to bear exposure to the air for some time without injury. It is also the 

 most popular game-fish, next to the salmon. Those in the markets are chiefly obtained in seines 

 and traps set at various points along the coast from the south side of Cape Cod to New Jersey. 

 Great quantities are also taken in shad seines in the spring. 1 They may be readily taken, also, 

 by heaving and hauling in the surf with menhaden bait, the fish being tolled by the use of great 

 quantities of menhaden ground into small bits, and in fresh or brackish water by the use of the 

 artificial fly. At various points on the coast of Southern New England are club-houses supported 

 by wealthy amateurs for the purpose of carrying on these sports. 2 



1 Messrs. Christian, Austin, Hoight, McKrel, Van Nort Brothers, and about forty others from Peekskill and Ver- 

 planck's Point, have about four hundred nets fishing on the ice between Gees Point and Warner's Island, and from the 

 way they are shipping the Striped Bass to New York and Peekskill they must be doing quite a business. On the 14th 

 and 15th instant (hey shipped about 600 pounds each dav, and on the 16th they shipped about 1,200 pounds, and on 

 the 18th they had over 1,000 pounds. They sell them at wholesale for nine and ten cents per pound, and at retail for 

 twelve cents. They use nets about twelve feet square, with two and a quarter inch meshes, to which they attach lines 

 and heavy weights, and sink them about forty feet below the ice. The average weight of the Bass is about one and 

 a half pounds, but a large number have been cangut that weigh from twelve to fifteen pounds. They lift their nets 

 at the ebb and flood tides, but are usually caught, on the flood tide. The river being clear of ice from this point all 

 the way to New York accounts for their coming from down the river to this place to fish. Springfield Republican, 

 May 24, 1873. 



'"The Island of Cuttyhnnk is about sixteen miles from Now Bedford, at the extreme southwesterly boundary of 

 Buzzard's Bay, whose foaming billows wash its northern shore, while the ocean itself beats npon the south, and near 

 Penekese, the island school of Professor Agassiz. The Cuttyhunk Club own about three hundred acres of laud, and 

 have the exclusive right to fish on the shores and in the ponds of the island. When the club was first formed they 

 stocked one of the ponds on the island with Black Bass, and these have multiplied BO plentifully that they are now 

 caught in large numbers. No fishing wag allowed for three years from the time the pond was stocked. Perch and 

 trout are also plenty in ponds on the island. Twenty-six fishing stands have been built at Cuttyhunk, and they 



