efunct, mutually
immolated upon the altar of gluttony. It is not an uncommon thing to find
them dead in that condition, for their appetites are ravenous, and lead
them into indiscretions more or less serious in their consequences.

There can be no doubt of their having regarded as a delicate attention the
action some few years since of the Maryland Fish Commissioner in placing
several thousand young California salmon in the river. Those salmon have
never been seen or heard of since; but, although the bass for some time had
a guilty look about them, it is hardly fair to let them remain under so
grievous an imputation as is implied in the whole responsibility for the
fate of the California emigrants. The fact is, that at Georgetown the
Potomac River makes a very abrupt change in its grade, and the Great Falls,
as they are called, are both picturesque and arduous of passage. The
salmon, being of luxurious habit, betakes him each year to the seaside, and
at the end of the season returns in a connubial frame of mind to the spot
endeared to him by his early associations. It is quite possible that these
particular salmon when on their way to the purlieus of marine fashion were
somewhat discouraged at the jar and shock incident to their transit over
the Falls. They may have concluded that the locality was unpropitious for
the return trip, and then, consulting with salmon whose lines had been cast
in more pleasant places, they may have ascended rivers of more conspicuous
natural attractions and more agreeable to fish of cultivated habits.

The habits of the black bass may be described as generally bad. It is a
fish devoid of any of the cardinal virtues. It is ever engaged in
internecine war, and will any day forego a square meal for the sake of a
fight. It gorges itself like a python, and when hooked is as game as a
salmon, and quite as vigorous in proportion to size. In the Potomac it has
been known to weigh as much as six pounds, but bass of that weight are very
rare, from three to four pounds being the average of what are known as good
fish. These afford excellent sport, and are taken with a variety of bait.
The habitues of the river commonly employ live minnow, chub, catfish,
suckers, sunfish--in fact, any fish under six inches in length. The bass
has also a well-marked predilection for small frogs, or indeed for frogs of
any dimensions. It sometimes rises well at a gaudy, substantial fly or a
deft simulation of a healthy Kan