Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-15

ON all the broken and tumultuous
reaches of the Potomac. from the
Great Falls to PARKWAY headwa-
< tiers in the foothills of the Ale
ghenies, he rules-a king in his own
right
King by reason of his strength and
craft and dauntlesS courage; made SOW
ereign lord by untamed spirit ana
quenchless fire, he spurns all Things
mean and craven. and. when at last he
dies the manner of his death is as be-
comes one born to the scepter and the
crown. Never did he flee before an
enemy: never did he give UP hSht
while there remained unspent an ounce
OIL strength Fanqushed at times he Is,
but only. you may be sure, when the
odds against him are overwhelming.
Man alone has been his conqueror. All
other foes he has met and matched and
overmatched. until none there is to dis
pute his reign.
Inch for inch and pound for pound.
he's the gamest thing that walks or
flies or swimS.
Thus sang one who had attained to
respect and admiration for Micropterus
dolomieu lacepede-the small-mouthed
black bass-overlord of whatever rush
ing. foam fecked, spume-smothcred
waters he may inhabt.
x <
Domain of the small -mouthed bass ex-
tends generally over the eastern and
northern part of the United States. His
characteristics seem to change in some
degree with the water in which he is
found, but gameness is an attribute he
loca fe, ,.f ar,1
ally in the great lakes, but there he is
less enduring though no less cour-
ageous fighter than he is in the small
er and colder lakes of northern Min
nesota. of Maine and far up into Can
ada.
Even in waters which he shares with
the implacable muskellunge and the
lordly landlocked salmon, the small
mouthed bass is no underling. Declared
from complete mastery by the greater
size and strength of his rivals, he still
refuses to acknowledge their suprem-
acy. and by the dash and fury of his
attack manages to hold his own.
His favorite waters, TO which he
seems by nature peculiarly adapted,
are broken and swift-running streams.
such as the Upper Potomac. There,
when man gives him anything like an
equal chance, he thrives and multi
plies and attains supremacy unchal-
lenged And it is in such waters that
he reaches his highest form as a fierce
unyielding fighter. Swifter the rapids
the more fiery his spirit, and the task
of bringing him to net is made more
difficult by the swish and swirl of the
current over the breaks and among the
rocks.
The man who thinks it no days
sport unless he fills his boat with fish
is not adapted, by temperament or
mental attitude toward life, for pursuit
of the small-mouthed black bass To the
pot hunter the game has little attrac-
ton. Not once in a year is a small
mouthed bass to be seen in a market
stall. though his cousin, the ig-mouth.
who resembles him SO greatly in ap-
pearance and SO little otherwise, is
there in abundance.
These first cousins of the numerous
family of basses-the small-mouth and
the big-mouth-look almost as much
alike as peas from single pod. Only
the initiated are able to distinguish
them. There is slight difference in
coloring. the small-mouth being a
shade darker, and the experts will
point out to you a difference in the ar
raRgement of the scales. The mouth
of one is called small only to dis
tinguish it from the other. which is
slightly larger. Either has a mouth
large enough to enable him to swallow
fish almost his equal in size.
Resemblance between the cousins,
however. stops dead short with appear
ances. AT the end of a fine silk line
one is a wild, untamed mustang; the
other a halter-broken cart horse. The
plymouth has no liking for torrential
streams. Placid lakes and ponds and
sluggish tidewater rivers are where he
thrives. His nature is sluggish one,
and his spirit tame. Hook him and he
will make one or two half-hearted
PUSHES; then will come drifting almost
unressting, to the net
Sitting all day idle in boat or on the
river bank, watching your float with