NORTHERN INLAND FISHES. 2JJ 



summer is done on the " riffs " or rapids ; from thence tney work 

 down to the foot of rough water, and later, as the weather is 

 warmer, to the eddies and pools. The Lake George bass almost 

 always when hooked go deeper, rarely appear above water until 

 they near the boat or landing net, always excepting when you 

 troll. In Lake Ontario are two varieties, one at Stony Island 

 being very thick and light colored, always sounding the minute 

 they are hooked ; another in the Black River Bay, dark colored, 

 much slimmer than the former, and. almost always coming to the 

 surface the first thing. The strawberry bass is a flat, deep fish, 

 has a nose well turned up, is thinner than the Oswego bass, and 

 has black and yellow blotches. 



However, in attempting to define differences, nothing is ac- 

 complished toward identification or separation ; only confusion is 

 increased. We recognize the simple fact, merely, that owing to 

 local causes of food, temperature and quality of water, and per- 

 haps to these only, very apparent differences obtain in stripe, size, 

 color, superficial markings, action, and periods of spawning. 



Most bass undoubtedly hybernate, and are not seen or caught 

 in winter. But Mr. A. W. Latham, Fish Commissioner of Min- ' 

 nesota, has stated that in some waters in that State they are occa- 

 sionally caught through the ice with hook and bait. They then 

 lie low in deep water, and seem after a fashion to hybernate. 

 Samuel Wilmot, of the Government Hatching House in Canada, 

 states that the fishermen take them with hook and line through 

 the ice in the Bay of Quinte, near Belleville. Fred. Mather, a well 

 known fish breeder of New York, says : 



" I kept one nearly all winter in an aquarium, and it did not 

 eat, and seldom moved anything except its eyes. I have also tried 

 to catch them from the small but well-stocked pond of Hon. S. H 

 Ainsworth, at West Bloomfield, without success. I have, how- 

 ever, seen those that were taken with a hook in Northern Michi- 

 gan, in March, while it is still winter in that locality." 



The fish begin to spawn about the middle of May. About a 

 month previous to the spawning season they pair, and leave the 

 deep, still water where they have spent the winter, and seek out 

 some retired spot in shallow water, about eighteen inches or two 

 feet deep, but near deeper water to which they can fly when 



