190 
THE BLACK BASSE. 
basse and Oswego basso are of different species. Hear 
hi in : 
“ The Oswego and Black Basse.— The Oswego basse and 
black basse bear so strong a resemblance to each other that 
not one fisherman in ten knows them as distinct entities. In 
form, color, weight, and habits, the two are almost perfectly 
identical; and yet their differences, though minute, arc strik- 
ing and essential. An Oswego basse, when placed by a 
black basse of the same size, is readily distinguished by his 
more forked tail, his greater thickness of shoulder, his coarser 
ecale9, and, above all, by his mouth, which, when open, is 
nearly twice as large as that of the black basse. In Lake 
Ontario, the Oswego basse is abundant, and the black basse 
comparatively rare. In Lake Erie, the black basse greatly 
predominates, and it may be doubted whether the Oswego- 
nian — like certain citizens of the Ontario shore — is not an 
interloper in our waters, who has found his way to us from 
below through some canal. However this may bo, ho is 
certainly right welcome ! 
11 The black basse is our chief object of pursuit — his cap- 
ture is our dearest triumph — his captive form our proudest 
trophy. When word first comes, in June, that the black 
basse bites in our river, what a stir there is among our anglers! 
— what questioning as to the when, and the where, and by 
whom, and with what bait, and the number, and size ! — what 
an anxious inquiry after big minnows ! — what a raking and 
scraping of pond-holes for soft lobsters ! — what a watching 
of the skies ! — and, if there be no wind, or a zephyr from the 
south or west, what bright and hopeful faces ! — but if the 
storm rage, or an easterly wind, however gentle, fan our 
sleeping bay, what rueful countenances ! — what half-sup- 
pressed repinings ! — what a woful, spiritless attempting to be 
busy about our ordinary avocations ! And why this commo- 
tion ? Because this is the very prince of our game-fishes. 
