TWELFTH ANNUAL MEETING, 23 
through the regions of metamorphic and stratified rocks and 
glacial drift, down to the recently formed coral rocks of the 
peninsula of Florida. 
Climatic influences do not seem to affect the distribution of 
the large-mouthed bass in any degree, in the United States, and 
of the small-mouthed bass only to a small extent. The original 
habitat of the species extended through twenty-five degrees of 
latitude and thirty degrees of longtitude, the small-mouthed 
bass alone not occurring in the extreme ten degrees of southern 
latitude, and the ten degrees of extreme western longitude of this 
range. Thus, while the small-mouthed bass is naturally re- 
stricted to cold and temperate waters, the large-mouthed bass 
bids defiance alike to the ice-bound streams of Canada, the 
tropical lagoons of East Mexico, and the sunny streams of 
Southern Florida. He flashes his bright armor under the firs 
and birches of the St. Lawrence basin, and erects his spiny crest 
in the grateful shade of the palms and live oaks of the southern 
peninsula. To him it is given— 
“To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice.” 
The character of waters has but little influence upon the dis- 
tribution of the species, less upon the large-mouthed bass than 
upon his small-mouthed congener. If the water is reasonably 
pure, both species will thrive in it; but,as has just been intimated, 
the small-mouthed bass naturally seeks cooler and clearer waters. 
Thus, while he is found in the headwaters of certain rivers 
flowing into the Atlantic (ndtably those of the Alleghany region 
of the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama), co-existing with the 
large-mouthed bass, the latter only occurs in the lower portions 
of the streams. (There are several rivers in Hernando county, 
on the Gulf coast of Florida, that burst out from the base of a 
sandy ridge running parallel with the coast and some twelve 
miles from it, whose sources are large springs fifty or sixty feet 
deep, and of half an acre in extent. Their waters are remark- 
ably clear and cool, with a strong current until tide water is 
reached; and I have no doubt but the small-mouthed would 
thrive wonderfully well in the upper portions of the streams if 
