44 
AMERICAN FISHES . 
top of the head. This is particularly prominent during the breeding 
season, and at this time the colors of the whole body are much brighter. 
The colored plate of this species, drawn by Mr. Kilburn for Scribner’s 
“Game Fishes of the United States,” represents a large male at the 
breeding season, the only picture of this kind which has ever yet been 
made. 
The Sea-Bass is of interest to fish culturists as being the first marine fish 
upon which the experiment of artificial propagation was tried in this 
country. This was in June, 1874, when Mr. Mather fertilized a number 
of eggs at the station of the United States Fish Commission at Noank, 
Conn. These eggs were placed in shad boxes and were watched for several 
days, as they passed through the early stages of segmentation. A storm 
interfered with the completion of the experiment, and it has never been 
repeated. 
The Sea-Bass is without many rivals as a chowder fish, and for boiling. 
Its flesh is firm, flaky, and very sweet. The hardness of the flesh makes 
it desirable for packing in ice, and prevents rapid deterioration in hot 
weather. The head is so large that half the weight of the fish is lost in 
the process of dressing for the table. 
There are excellent fishing grounds on the Savannah Bank and others 
near Charleston, at the mouth of the Chesapeake and the Delaware Bays, 
off the coast of New Jersey and the entrance to New York harbor and in 
Long Island Sound, and Buzzard’s Bay. The latter are frequented in 
summer by ten or twelve Connecticut smacks, which purvey for the New 
York market. The fish are carried in the wells of the smacks to Noank 
or New London, where they are kept alive in floating cars until needed 
for shipment. It is one of the chief recommendations of this fish that it 
is so hardy and tenacious of life that it can be kept any length of time in 
confinement. Thousands of them may be seen, swimming in perfect 
health in the cars, crowded together until their sides are in contact, and 
thus they are often kept for weeks. Before they are placed in the wells 
the fisherman has recourse to the expedient of thrusting an awl into the 
side of the fish so as to puncture the air-bladder. Otherwise they would 
float on the surface, on account of the expansion of air in the bladder after 
the removal of the pressure of the weight of water under which they are 
accustomed to live. Several of the Noank smacks are usually employed 
from November to April in fishing for Sea-Bass on the Southern coast. 
These supply the Charleston market. 
