THE basses: fres h-w ater and marine 



most stripe is somewhat below the middle of the 

 body depth. In life these stripes are purplish blue, 

 fading to slate and light brown. The whole body 

 is also beautifully iridescent and presents one of 

 the most pleasing pictures in the whole range of 

 game-fishes. In addition to the beautiful play 

 of colors this bass is trim and shapely, swift in 

 movement, and possessed of great strength and 

 cunning, qualities which combine to make it one 

 of the greatest favorites in the angler's category. 

 It seems wonderful that a fish which sometimes 

 surpasses 100 pounds in weight should develop 

 from an egg smaller than that of the shad, and 

 from an embryo which when newly hatched is less 

 than a quarter of an inch long. The egg of the 

 striped bass is scarcely half as bulky as that of 

 the Atlantic salmon, yet its product is much larger 

 than that of the largest salmon on record. 



Common Names 



In the northern United States the name " striped 

 bass " is more generally used than any other for 

 this fish, especially along the coast. In the Dela- 

 ware, Susquehanna, and Potomac rivers it is called 

 " rockfish," which was one of the early New York 

 names for this species. Schoepf , a German writer 

 who came to the United States during our Revo- 

 lutionary war, heard the names " rockfish " and 



170 



