194 
not confined my attention strictly to bass, and 
you can readily understand that under the cir- 
cumstances a thorough “fish crank” can pick 
up many odd bits of information on the subject 
of his hobby. 
As my back tank is a very convenient place 
for fresh-caught fish until I am ready to use 
them, I always endeavor, when fishing, to keep 
my catch alive. After landing a fish I string 
him by carefully putting a string through be- 
tween the gills and the outer gill cover (never 
between two red gills), and then out at the 
mouth, drawing it through slowly, so as not to 
draw blood from the gills. I tie a separate 
loop for each fish, so they do not strain each 
other’s gills, and tie them in the water until I 
am ready to go home. IfIam on foot I carry 
the fish home by the strings, and, if in a con- 
veyance, they are laid down in the bottom of 
the wagon. When the weather is cool fish may 
be kept out of water an hour or even longer, 
and regain their health, but a carry of only fif- 
teen or twenty minutes through a hot summer 
sun often kills them. Bass are more hardy and 
able to bear more exposure than the channel 
catfish. The small wound made by the hook 
in the hard jaws of a bass scarcely shows the 
next day, but in the jaws of a channel catfish 
the hook wound often festers and remains sore 
for several weeks. 
Small-mouthed bass have always been quick 
to grow accustomed to their changed surround- 
ings; they soon begin to feed, and soon cease 
to become frightened at unusual motions or 
shadows, but have always strenuously objected 
to having a landing net putunderthem. They 
permit me, and apparently enjoy to have me 
rub their backs and sides with a stick, some- 
what similar to dogs who like to have their 
heads scratched. 
With large-mouthed bass my experience has 
been quite different. I have often tried to make 
one of them a permanent resident in my aqua- 
rium, but have not succeeded. They remain 
wild, refuse to eat, and finally sicken and die. 
I made my last attempt with a three-pounder 
last summer. He had not been injured in the 
catching, had to bear only ten minutes of car- 
rying on a moderately cool day, and arrived at 
my aquarium without showing any sign of 
NATURE'S REALM. 
weakness, swimming off as soon as put in the 
water. I never saw him feed, and at the end 
of three months he looked so shrunken and 
miserable that I took him back to the river in 
disgust, determined not to try any more exper- 
iments with large-mouthed bass. Catfish also 
have been unsatisfactory tenants in my aqua- 
rium. The bullheads and the flat-headed 
marbled catfish have become diseased after six 
months or a year, probably because they per- 
sisted in lying so close to the filth which gath- 
ers between the rocks in the bottom, and they 
had no mud to crawl through to clean them- 
selves. Probably, also, I did not take as much 
pains to wash and clean them as I did my other 
fish. Channel catfish have shown no tendency 
to become diseased (they are not mud rooters), 
but their wild and unreasoning fear, which 
causes them on the slightest provocation to 
rush about with stiff horns, added to their 
strength and agility, makes them rather dan- 
gerous for their neighbors. The one now in 
my tank was wild all of the first year, but he 
was not large enough to do any damage. Of 
pike we have only a few small ones in our 
river, still I have several times put a pike fifteen 
inches long into my aquarium. Suckers we 
have plenty, and I have tried them of all sizes, 
large and small, but the small-mouthed black 
bass seem to possess an inveterate hatred 
against pike and suckers. They swallow 
either if less than seven inches long, and vi- 
ciously attack the larger ones, biting them till 
they die. 
Rock bass or goggle-eyes, even if only three 
inches long, are permitted by their lordly and 
somewhat vicious neighbors to live in peace. 
They soon become reconciled to their new 
quarters, soon begin to feed, and thrive about 
as well as their messmates, the small-mouthed 
black bass. Carp are also permitted by the 
other fish to live undisturbed. Sunfish live all 
right, but unless they are more than three 
inches in diameter, their career ends inside ot 
the bass. [Eels live in peace and health with 
their neighbors (I have found the tendency to 
become diseased only in the bullheads and 
mud catfish), but they have too much curiosity, 
and are forever climbing out of the aquarium. 
Many times have I found them on the floor and 
