The Black Bass as a Game Fish. 339 



eddy, their bristling spines and emerald sides gleaming in 

 the sunshine, I hear an awful voice from the adjacent 

 rocks exclaiming : " Fools rush in where angels fear to 

 tread ! " Shade of Izaak Walton defend us ! While ap- 

 pealing to Father Izaak for protection, I quote his words : 

 " Of which, if thou be a severe, sour complexioned man, 

 then I here disallow thee to be a competent judge." 



Serioush', most of our notions of game-fish and fishing 

 are derived from British writers; and as the salmon^ the 

 trout and the grayling are the only fishes in Great Britain 

 worthy of being called game, they, of course, form the 

 themes of British writers on game-fish. Americans, fol- 

 lowing the lead of our British cousins in this, as we were 

 wont to do in all sporting matters, have eulogized the 

 salmon and brook trout as the game-fishes par excellence 

 of America, ignoring others equally worthy. 



While some claim for the striped bass a high place in 

 the list of game-fish, I feel free to assert, that, were the 

 black bass a native of Great Britain, he would rank fully 

 as high in the estimation of British anglers as either the 

 trout or the salmon. I am borne out in this by the opinions 

 of British sportsmen whose statements have been received 

 without qiiestion. 



W. H. Herbert (Frank Forester) writing of the black 

 bass, says : 



" This is one of the finest of the American fresh-water fishes ; 

 it is surpassed by none in boldness of biting, in fierce and violent 

 resistance when hooked, and by a, very few only in exeellenci 

 upon the board." 



Parker Gilmore ("Ubique") says: 



" I fear it will be almost deemed heresy to place this fish 

 (black bass) on a par with the trout; at least, some such idea 

 I had when I first heard the two compared; but I am bald, and 



