THE STRIPED BASS. 
Roccus lineatus. 
The stately Bass, old Neptune’s fleeting Post 
That tides it out and in from sea to coast. 
Wood, New England?s Prospect : 1634. 
DY the Greeks, it was so highly esteemed that Archetratus termed it, or 
“®“^one of the two other closely allied species taken near Miletus, “ the off¬ 
spring of the gods:” So writes Gunther, concerning the Bass of Europe, 
the Aaflpac; and the Lupus of classical literature, which ascended the Ti¬ 
ber, and entered the Acherusian marshes, and gladdened the palates of 
the gourmets of Rome and Athens. 
The European Bass, Roccus labrax* is found from the Mediterranean, 
to Tromsoe in Norway; the American species ranges from the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico. The two species are similar in form, 
but very unlike in color; ours being conspicuously striped, while that of 
Europe is silvery grey. The American form is the largest, most active, 
and on account of its greater abundance, by far the more important. 
In the North it is called the “Striped Bass,” in the South the “Rock 
Fish,” or the “Rock.” The neutral territory where both these names are 
in use appears to be New Jersey. The fisherman of the Delaware use the 
latter name, those of the sea-coast the former. Large sea-going individ¬ 
uals are sometimes known in New England by the names “Squid-hound” 
* Bass, Sea-Pe?ch , White Salmon , Salmon Dace and Sewin, in England, Gape-motith in Scotland, 
Draenxjg in Wales, ( This means hedgehog. Compare with the Breton Dreinee.) Bar and Bars in France, Van 
and Dreinee in Brittany, See-Barsch in Germany, Hav-Bars and Bars in Denmark, Spinola, Spigola, Bran - 
zine, Varola , Baciola, Ragus and Labrace in Italy, Lube?i in Croatia, (compare Latin Lupus.) 
