Food and Growth. 83 



pounds, while in deeper lakes in the same vicinity they 

 attain the usual maximum weight of four or five pounds; 

 and in Green Lake, a large and deep lake near Eipon, in 

 the same state, I once caught a string of thirty black bass, 

 mostly of the large-mouth species, weighing from four 

 to eight pounds each, and fully averaging six pounds. 



An instance, showing the rapid growth of black bass, 

 is related by Mr. Charles J. Pearson, at that time Fish 

 Warden for Morris County, New Jersey: He states that 

 in the fall of 1876, fifty black bass, measuring from two 

 and a half to four inches in length, were placed in D. L. 

 Miller's pond at Madison, Morris County, New Jersey. On 

 October 17th, 1877, about one year from the time of put- 

 ting them in, Mr. Miller had occasion to draw the water 

 down, for some repairs. He had the flume so arranged as 

 to take any fish that might run out. Eleven bass were 

 caught. They measured from ten to thirteen inches in 

 length, and were undoubtedly the same fish which were put 

 in the year before, as none of this species of fish were ever 

 known in the pond before. 



There is not an absolute uniformity of growth in fishes, 

 any more than in other creatures ; thus, some fish will out- 

 grow others of the same hatching until double their size, 

 a fact made very apparent in the artificial culture of brook 

 trout, salmon, etc. ; but black bass will grow with wonder- 

 ful rapidity where an equable temperature of water and an 

 abundance of food obtain. As an instance of the influence 

 of an abundant supply of food upon the growth of black 

 bass, A. N. Cheney, of Glens Falls, New York, related to 

 me the following circumstance, and presented me with a 

 fine photograph of the two fish alluded to: 



" I send you a photograph of two large-mouth bass^ caught by 

 myself. They are, or, rather, one of them is, the largest basa 



