XXXiV AMERICAN FISHES. 
some fish, gave it to the Centrarchoid fishes generally known as Black 
Basses. This perversion even found its way into scientific literature, for 
“Citizen Bosc,” French consul at Charleston a century ago, sent specimens 
to Paris, with the information that it was called Trout, and “ Citizen Lacé- 
pede” gave it the specific name sa/moides. Along the southern coast, too, 
the name Trout or Sea Trout was given to Sciznoid fishes of the genus 
Cynoscion. When the Americans reached the Californian coast, they found 
certain fishes of a peculiar family (Hexagrammids), not at all like Trout in 
shape or fins, but spotted, and these also they called Trout. Still another 
fish, found in the Gila River, a slender large-mouthed Cyprinid, Gi/a gracilis, 
was called by early explorers Trout, and still bears the name. 
But this is not all, or the worst! These old names are not only widely 
scattered ; they may be more or less concentrated on one fish. We need 
only take those already considered as instances. 
Cod and Trout are given to the same Hexagrammids along the Pacific 
coast. The Hexagrammus decagrammus, for instance, is called Rock Cod 
about Puget Sound, and Rock Trout and Sea Trout at San Francisco. Bass 
may also be given in some places, as a somewhat related fish, less like a 
Bass (Sebastodes melanops), is called Black Bass. 
Trout, Bass, and Perch are also given to the Black-basses, as already indi- 
cated, in various places in the Southern States. 
Now, great complaint is often made that the English names are not always 
given to fishes; and it is sometimes urged that there is no reason why any 
Latin names should be used. But what are the English names for some of 
these fishes, such as the Hexagrammids? All that have been given are 
inappropriate, and really convey to one who does not already know them, 
but does know the originals, quite an erroneous idea. In the case of the 
Black-basses, by convention and usage educated anglers have settled upon 
an English name ; but let one of them go to some obscure stream in South 
Carolina. He may find there a rustic angler who has hauled out several 
of these fishes, and is approached by another rustic from the upper country. 
The stranger exclaims, “Them ’s fine Pearch!” The angler scornfully re- 
plies, “ Mon alive, them’s not Pearch; them’s Trout!” And they imme 
diately denounce each other as know-nothings. The more ignorant the 
fisherman is, the more convinced is he that his English name is right, and 
the only right one. 
The names heretofore noticed were given on account of real or supposed 
resemblance of individual fishes to those after which they were named. 
