66 Book of the Black Bass. 



lantie and Gulf slopes of the southern states, the large- 

 mouth bass alone occurs. Thus, while the small-mouth 

 bass seems to be restricted naturally to the older formations, 

 the large-mouth bass roams at his own sweet will through 

 the regions of metamorphic and stratified rocks and glacial 

 drift, down to the recently formed coral rocks of the pe- 

 ninsula of Florida. 



Climatic influences do not seem to affect the distribution 

 of the large-mouth bass in any degree, in the United 

 States, and of the small-mouth bass only to a small ex- 

 tent. The original habitat of the species extended through 

 twenty-five degrees of latitude and thirty degrees of longi- 

 tude, the small-mouth bass alone not occurring in the ex- 

 treme ten degrees of southern latitude, and the ten degrees 

 of extreme western longitude of this range. Thus, while 

 the small-mouth bass is naturally restricted to cold and 

 temperate waters, the large-mouth 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 liis spiny crest in the 

 grateful shade of the palms and live oaks of the southern 

 peinsula. 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 

 distribution of the species, less upon the large-mouth bass 

 than upon his small-mouth congener. If the water is rea- 

 sonably pure, both species will thrive in it ; but, as has just 

 been intimated, the small-mouth bass naturally seeks cooler 

 and clearer waters. Thus, while he is found in the head- 

 waters of certain rivers flowing into the Atlantic (notably 



