Book of the Black Bass: comprising its Complete Scientific and Life History; together with a Practical Treatise on Angling and Fly-Fishing, and a Full Description of Tools, Tackle, and Implements

Abstract

THE author hi this volume endeavours, and we think succeeds, in giving to the Black Bass its proper place among the freshwater game fishes of North America; and undoubtedly the reader will find himself taking an interest in this fish as he reads this enthusiastic account about it. No doubt the first and second chapters will be most tedious reading, and yet they are full of interest as showing how tangled may become the scientific nomenclature even of a well-known fish. As the sum and substance of these chapters we find the two species of the genus Micropterus, standing, the one as M. dolomieu, and the other as M. salmoides, and it is of these two respectively—the small-mouthed Black Bass and the large-mouthed Black Bass—that the author writes. Both species are very active, muscular, and voracious, with hard and tough mouths, are very bold in biting, and when hooked exhibit gameness and endurance second to no other fish. Both give off the characteristic musky odour when caught. They generally inhabit the same waters. These Black Bass are wholly unknown in the Old World, except where quite recently introduced. Their original habitat is remarkable for its extent, for with the exception of the New England States and the Atlantic seaboard of the Middle States, it comprises the whole of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, Ontario, and, last, Mexico. Of late years this distribution has been greatly extended. These fish are very prolific, and rapid growers where food is plentiful. In northern waters six to eight pounds is about the limit of their weight, but in Florida they are sometimes met with up to twelve and fourteen pounds. They have been several times imported into England, and we believe that those brought over in 1879 at the expense of the Marquis of Exeter have succeeded well. The fisherman who reads the latter portion of this volume will find many pleasant anecdotes and stories in connection with the gentle art, and should he happen to frequent those waters where the Black Bass are to be found, he will get many a precious wrinkle which he might have otherwise not known. The author's parting injunction is, “Always kill your fish as soon as taken from the water, and ever be satisfied with a moderate creel. By so doing your angling days will be happy and your sleep undisturbed, and you and I and the fish we may catch can say—