FISH ACCLIMATISATION. 399 



minnow, or worni, and fights to the last. There are none in 

 Whitewater larger than three pounds in weight, but the Blade 

 Bass is said to attain a weight of ten or twelve pounds when the 

 water and food suit him. He is an excellent fish for the table, 

 with few bones, and flesh more like a whiting in taste than a 

 freshwater fish. 



I cannot, perhaps, better conclude these notes than by 

 appending a short history of the Black Bass that I wrote for 

 the Fish Culture Association, and also a letter of my pisci- 

 culturist, Mr. Walter Silk, on the subject of his breeding and 

 feeding boxes, which I asked him to compile for me. 



Exeter. 



Burghley House : April i6, 1884. 



Dear Mr. Chambers, — I have done the best I can to write 

 you a description of the Black Bass, to which I have appended 

 a sketch of the small-mouthed Black Bass (JMicropterus dolotnica, 

 or Micropterus Lac'epMe), La Ferche du Canada. 



Scales moderate, in about sixty-five oblique rows between 

 the head and caudal, and eight longitudinal ones between the 

 back and lateral line, decreasing towards the nape, but more 

 towards the throat. Head moderate in size, rather flat between 

 the orbits. Mouth large, with underjaw projecting. Angle of 

 mouth anterior to posterior border of the eye. Front dorsal fin 

 has the spines decreasing slowly in length each way from the 

 middle spine. These spines are very sharp. The anterior 

 dorsal fin has about thirteen or fourteen soft rays. There are 

 eight fins in all, viz. two dorsal, two pectoral, two ventral, one 

 , anal, and one caudal. The pectoral fins have sixteen soft rays, 

 the anal has one or two sharp spines and eleven or twelve soft 

 rays. The tail has seventeen or eighteen soft rays. The colour 

 of this fish in the younger species is greenish- black or dark 

 olive-green, darker on back, and shading to yellowish-white on 

 belly and under side of lower jaw ; more or less spotted when 

 young, or marked v/ith a number of dark blotches arranged ia 



