370 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
also toa great age. They are a very wary and cautious 
fish, and very uncertain in appetite, being sometimes ready 
to take a bait, and at others obstinately refusing every 
temptation. The carp is now common in the Hudson, 
having escaped from the store ponds of Captain Robinson, 
who imported it from Holland, and having been protected 
by law until it became abundant. 
Tue Bass.—Of this fine family there are four species 
peculiar to the waters of the rivers, lakes, and sea bays 
of North America, besides a purely salt-water species taken 
on the outer sea-banks, known as the sea bass, Centro- 
pristes Nigricans. These three are the striped bass, 
Labraz lineatus, a noble migratory fish, varying. according 
to age and condition from half a pound to seventy pounds 
weight, and frequenting all the waters of the Middle and 
Eastern States, fromm those of the Chesapeake to Boston 
Bay. He runs up the fresh rivers from the sea in pursuit 
of the shoals of shad and smelt, on the roe of which he 
feeds greedily, and frequents the fresh waters until late in 
the autumn, when he retires to the sea bays and inlets, 
where he remains imbedded in the mud of those calm and 
brackish lagoons until the return of warm weather. 
He is a handsome, active fish, bluish brown above and 
silvery white on the sides and belly, marked with seven or 
nine longitudinal stripes of chocolate brown, those above 
the medial line terminating at the tail, those below it 
fading away and disappearing above the anal fin. Like 
the perch he has two dorsal fins, the anterior one having 
nine sharp-pointed spirous rays. He is a gallant fish and 
bold biter. 
