FERCIDiE. 



195 



AUANTHOPTERYGII. PEROIU-E. 



THE BLACK BASS 



OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. 



Huro Nigricans; Cuvier. — Centrarchus Fasciatus ; DeKay. — Gristes Nigricans! 



Agassiz. 



This is one of the finest of the American fresh-water fishes ; it is 

 surpassed by none in boldness of biting, in fierce and violent resistance 

 when hooked, and by a very few only in excellence upon the board. 



Peculiar originally to the basin of the St. Lawrence, in which it 

 abounds from the Falls of Niagara downward, if not through its whole 

 course, it has made its way into the waters of the upper Hudson, 

 through the canals. It is said by Dr. DeKay to be found generally in 

 the small lakes of the State of New York, but I conclude that this 

 must be limited to those which communicate with the great lakes or 

 the St. Lawrence. It is taken abundantly in Lake Champlain, but it 

 is in the swift glancing waters of the St. Lawrence, among the exqui- 

 site scenery of the Thousand Islands, that it affords the greatest sport 

 to the angler. 



It bites ravenously at a small fish or spinning-tackle, or at the deadly 

 and murderous spoon, an instrument so certainly destructive that the 

 uso of it is properly discouraged by all true anglers as poaching and 

 unsportsmanlike . 



The finest sport can be had, however, with a long light Salmon-line, 

 treble-twisted gut, to defy its numerous and exceedingly acute teeth, 

 and a large fly, with a body of scarlet chenil and four wings, two of 

 the silver pheasant and two of the scarlet ibis. As the Black Bass 

 attains to the weight of six or eight pounds, and is excelled in vigor, 

 speed and agility only by the Brook Trout, the Salmon Trout and the 

 True Salmon, the sport which he affords when thus hooked can be 

 very readily imagined ; nor can he be brought to the basket by any- 

 thing short of the best tackle, and the most delicate and masterly 

 jnanipulation. 

 In color, this fish is of a dusky bluish black, sometimes with bronze 



