BOOK OF THE BLACK BASS. 



CHAPTER I. 



SCIENTIFIC HISTORY OF THE BLACK BASS.* 



(MiCHOPTEEDS.) 



" For my name and memory, I leave it to men's charitable 

 speeches, to foreign nations, and to the next ages." — Bacon. 



The scientific history of the black bass is a most unsatis- 

 factory one. This is owing to a train of accidental cir- 

 cumstances, and to the neglect of thorough investigation 

 of its earliest history, as recorded by Lacepede, the re- 

 nowned French naturalist, in the original edition of his 

 great work, " Histoire Naturelle des Poissons." 



This representative American fish was first brought to 

 the light of science in a foreign land, and under the most 

 unfavorable auspices. Its scientific birth was, like Mac- 

 duff's, untimely; it was, unhappily, born a monstrosity; 



* In the first edition of this book an exhaustive review of the 

 nomenclature and morphology of the black bass species was given, 

 introducing a number of lengthy papers and references bearing on 

 the subject. In the present edition the author deems it unneces- 

 sary to reproduce much of the evidence then used to prove and 

 corroborate his arguments, inasmuch as his views have been fully 

 concurred in, and his restoration of Lacgpede's names for the two 

 species has been indorsed and adopted. It is, therefore, deemed 

 sufficient to present in a concise form, and in chronological order, 

 the perplexing account of the nomenclature of the species from 

 their first description by Lae6p6de to the final restoration of his 

 generic and specific names. 



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