5 6 
AMERICAN FISHES. 
The Small-mouth shares with the Large-mouth in the Southern States the 
names “Jumper,” “ Pearch ” and “Trout,” and in Alabama, according 
to Prof. Jordan, it is called the “Mountain Trout. “Bronze-backer” is 
one of its pet names among the anglers. 
“Marsh Bass,” “River Bass,” “Rock Bass,” “ Slough Bass,” “White 
Bass,” “Green Bass,” “Spotted Bass,” “Green Perch,” “Yellow 
Perch,” “Black Perch” and “Speckled Hen ” are other names applied 
to one or both species. A comedy of errors this hath surely been, and 
the colloquy between the Duke and the Dromios comes pat to the pen : 
“ Duke. One of these men is genius to the other ; 
And so of these. Which is the natural man, 
And which the spirit ? Who deciphers them ? 
Dromio of Syracuse. I, sir, am Dromio ; command him away. 
Dromio of Ephesus. I, sir, am Dromio ; pray let me stay.”* * 
Both species are very widely distributed over the Atlantic slope of the 
continent east of the Rocky Mountains, and their range is probably much 
wider than is now supposed, for many of our northern and western waters 
are still unexplored. The Large-mouth and Small-mouth dwell together in 
the Great Lakes, and in the upper parts of the St. Lawrence and Missis¬ 
sippi basins. The Small-mouth is found north to latitude 47 0 and west to 
Wisconsin, while southward it ranges to latitude 33°, where Prof. Jordan 
found it in the headwaters of the Chattahoochee and Ocmulgee Rivers, 
this being the only instance of its presence in a stream emptying east 
of the Alleghanies, into which it is not known to have been introduced by 
man. The Large-mouth ranges further to the west and north, occurring 
in the Red River of the North, perhaps as far as Manitoba, in latitude 50°. 
It abounds in all the rivers of the Southern States, from the James to the 
St. John, and in the lower reaches of the streams and bayous connected 
with the Gulf of Mexico, around to Texas, in latitude 27 0 . 
To the waters of New England and the eastern part of the Middle States 
they are not native. The Small-mouths found their way into the Hudson 
in 1825 or soon after, through the newly-opened Erie Canal, and they 
have since been introduced by man into hundreds of eastern lakes and 
rivers. Many circumstances suggest the idea that in early days, before 
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* For fuller information upon this and other matters connected with the species the reader is referred to Dr. 
J. A. Henshall’s elaborate and exhaustive illustrated treatise, entitled “ Book of the Black Bass,” published 
in 1881 by Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati. “Fly fishing for Black Bass,” a serial publication by W. S. 
Norris, in The American Angler , is an exceedingly well-written sketch in the American style. 
