348 Book of the Black Bass. 



undisturbed and peaceable possession of the streams, so far 

 as the fish-hook is concerned, while the axe of the liunber- 

 man continues to ring its death knell. 



Let us, then, cherish and foster and protect the crimson- 

 spotted favorite of our youthfid days as long as possible in 

 public waters, and introduce the rainbow trout, the Dolly 

 Varden, the steelhead, the red-throat trout or the English 

 brown trout, when he has disappeared ; and when all these 

 succumb, then, and not till then, introduce the black bass. 

 But let us give these cousins of the brook trout a fair trial 

 first, and without prejudice. There are plenty of lakes, 

 ponds and large streams in the eastern states into which 

 the black bass can be introduced without interfering witli 

 trout waters. 



For many years to come brook trout wiU be artificially 

 cultivated, and the supply thus kept up in preserved waters 

 by wealthy angling clubs; but by the alteration of the na- 

 tural conditions of their existence they will gradually de- 

 crease in size and qualitj', until finally they will either cease 

 to be or degenerate to such a degree as to forfeit even this 

 praiseworthy protection. 



I must dissent from the statement sometimes made that 

 the black bass is the bluefish of fresh waters. The black 

 bass is voracious — so are all game-fishes— but not more so 

 than the brook trout. The character of a fish's teeth de- 

 termines the nature of its food and the manner of its feed- 

 ing. The bluefish has the most formidable array of teeth 

 of any fish of its size — compressed, lancet-shaped, covered 

 with enamel, and exceedingly strong and sharp, in fact, 

 miniature shark teeth — while the black bass has soft, 

 small, brush-like teeth, incapable of wounding, and in- 

 tended only for holding its prey, which is swallowed whole. 

 The brook trout has longer, stronger and sharper teeth than 



