PREFACE. 



This edition of the Book of the Black Bass includes 

 also the Supplement, Moee About the Black Bass, 

 and is complete in one volume. A new edition of these 

 books has been necessitated owing to the destruction by 

 fire of the stereotype plates of the former editions. 

 Advantage was taken of this circumstance for a thor- 

 ough revision, whereby much of the text of the old 

 editions has been eliminated, new matter substituted, 

 and other features added more in accordance with the 

 present knowledge of the subject. 



The first .edition of this book owed its origin to a 

 long-cherished desire on the part of the author to give 

 to the black bass species their proper place among game- 

 fishes, and to create among anglers, and the public 

 generally, an interest in two fishes that had never been 

 so fully appreciated as their merits deserved, because 

 of the want of suitable tackle for their capture, on the 

 one hand, and a lack of information regarding their 

 habits and economic value on the other. At the present 

 day, however, the author's prediction that they would 

 eventually become the favorite game-fish of America 

 has been fully verified. 



The "Book of the Black Bass" is of an entirely prac- 

 tical nature regarding its subject-matter and its illus- 

 trations. It has been written more with a view to 

 instruct than to amuse or entertain. The reader will, 

 therefore, look in vain between its covers for those 



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