BLAC 
 
 
 ALBERT BEN 
 
 CUNiNING 
 
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 : iL 
 
Class _■ 
 
 Book.. 
 
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 CopyiiglrtN" 
 
 COIVRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 THE CHRONICLE OF AN OLD TOWN 
 
AL5ERT BENeJAMIN 
 CUNNINGHAM 
 
 tfa>BflB»kB>m» 
 
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 THE ABINGDON PRESS 
 
 NEW YORK CINCINNATI 
 

 Copyright, 1922, by 
 ALBERT BENJAMIN CUNNINGHAM 
 
 Printed in tlie United States of America 
 
 JUL -7 1922 
 
 ©CI.AC74836 
 
 tier./. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTBR PAGB 
 
 The Lure 7 
 
 I. The Spawn 11 
 
 II. Infancy 16 
 
 III. Comedy and Tragedy 25 
 
 IV. Natural Selection 37 
 
 V. The Emergence of a Bully 51 
 
 VL The Despoilers 62 
 
 VII. A Philosophy of Life 71 
 
 VIII. Great Fish Meets Canny Angler ... 85 
 IX. The Battlers 102 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 "Male and female kept racial vigil over the 
 nest." 12 
 
 "The bass was terrified at sight of this tra- 
 ditional enemy." 30 
 
 "A fish hawk, ancient foe of the bass, swooped 
 
 down." 66 
 
 "Old Black Bass steeled his mighty heart for 
 the conflict." 89 
 
DAM the spirit of the fisherman. I 
 Ij sit by the riverside and hear the 
 
 splash of trout in the gray morning. 
 I go to the lake at evening and see the bass 
 flash under the sweeping bough of the 
 birch. I dream my dreams of fish. 
 
 I enter the city office when the breath 
 of May blows warm and whisper to those 
 who love me of white falls and quiet waters 
 in the vastness of open spaces. 
 
 I hover over the campfire where my 
 kindred are gathered and listen to their tales 
 of great catches, of unnamed winding 
 rivers, of fish that fight in waters that are 
 cold. 
 
 I am as old as the River Nile, where the 
 ancient Pharos cast their lines among the 
 
 7 
 
8 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 rushes; I am as young as the barefoot boy 
 hurrying across the meadow with his paw- 
 paw pole. 
 
 I have my loves and my hates. No words 
 can record my aversion for the person (is 
 he man or devil?) who snares the little fish 
 under size, whose abortive selfishness leads 
 him to continue when the creel is full and 
 who catches the mother at spawning time. 
 To me he is the human wolverine, the fish 
 glutton; and for him I have loathing as 
 well as hate. 
 
 But there is another who angles for love — 
 love of the blue-green softness of lake, love 
 of cold hurrying waters, love of the camp- 
 fire below the pines. He matches his in- 
 genuity with the cleverness of fish, and gives 
 them a chance. He knows when he has 
 caught enough, and he is tender with the 
 little ones. To him I would dedicate this 
 tale. 
 
 In it I shall tell of Old Black Bass as I 
 have seen him on dusky evenings where the 
 whippoorwill calls. 
 
 Old Black Bass was the leader of his 
 school. He was big of body, aggressive of 
 spirit, and bold. With him was cleverness 
 
THE LURE 9 
 
 in eluding the canniest angler, and his life 
 knew both sorrow and joy, love and bitter- 
 ness. 
 
 If the reading of his story leads you to 
 greater love of the waters, to a better under- 
 standing of all his kindred, and to manifest 
 forever the attitude of the true sportsman, 
 then I, the spirit of the fisherman, shall be 
 satisfied. 
 
OHE moon was first a luminous cres- 
 cent etched sharply against the soft 
 blue of the sky. Then it came full 
 and round and threw a silver mantle like 
 a sheer bridal veil over the placid waters of 
 the lake. It waned with the nights to a pale 
 shadow, one side sheared away. Finally it 
 vanished, and darkness was over the waters. 
 During the major part of its phases, as 
 it waxed and waned, a black bass in the 
 mouth of a quiet cove had kept a long racial 
 vigil. Fifteen yards from shore, she had 
 guarded her spawn bed with a vigilance 
 absolute and ceaseless. Tired she grew, 
 yes ; but neglectful, never. She was one of 
 
12 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 the mothers of the world, paying in this 
 watchfulness her travail for the life so soon 
 to be. 
 
 She was a large-mouth. And while 
 slender of form, she was agile and strong. 
 Her speed as she darted at an approaching 
 enemy was as the swiftness of light; yet as 
 she hung above the nest in the quiet hours 
 with slight movement save the gentle un- 
 dulation of pectoral and pelvic fins, she was 
 a daughter of the Graces, beautifully 
 formed. 
 
 Many times during those days of vigil a 
 great bass slipped from his position as outer 
 guard fifteen feet away and approached her 
 with friendliness and respect. Where she 
 was slender he was mighty; while she was 
 gentle he was pugnacious and aggressive; 
 where she was light of color he was exces- 
 sively dark. But when they came together 
 it was on a plane of equality, for the eggs on 
 the nest she had deposited and he had 
 fertilized ; they should be the parents of the 
 spawn. 
 
 Seeing the two together on the occasions 
 when he hung over the nest with her, one 
 knew that the spawn from this union should 
 
'Male and female kept racial vigil over the nest." 
 
THE SPAWN 13 
 
 be the product of nature's choicest selection, 
 for she on her side and he on his were 
 typical of the best of the species. 
 
 It was on a memorable morning twenty- 
 two days after the eggs were deposited that 
 the spawn began to hatch. Little tiny 
 chubs one fourth of an inch long were in 
 the water where days before the mother 
 had kept watch over stillness; small wee 
 bits of protoplasm that expressed in random 
 reflex movement the life that had been given 
 to them. 
 
 Four days passed. As morning advanced 
 the little minnows rose nearer the surface 
 and were warmed; at evening they settled 
 back on the nest. The mother kept up a 
 circling guard, going round and round the 
 school. 
 
 Slowly the tiny sac disappeared from 
 their bodies. They came clean ; their birth 
 process was over. Then for the first time 
 the mother bass showed signs of restlessness. 
 It was as if, her task nearly finished, she 
 fretted to be free: just as the collie, the 
 sheep corralled, yawns her boredom and 
 whimpers for the distant places. 
 
 She watched the inchoate movements of 
 
14 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 the tiny progeny with more and more a 
 turning of her body toward the still cold 
 waters of the lake. Within her was the deep 
 and formless call of nature, to be away. 
 
 More with imperious movements of the 
 body than by any conscious guidance the 
 parent directed her tiny offspring toward 
 the shore. They did not follow ; they were 
 swept along by the swirling currents created 
 by her activity. 
 
 They moved toward the base of the cove. 
 Arriving there, she circled the spot slowly, 
 again watchful and alert, inspecting for 
 dangers the new quarters. 
 
 No sooner was her tail turned than the 
 little followers lifted to the warmer surface 
 water. A belted kingfisher dropped from 
 a tamarack and with whir of wings struck 
 the water. Its aim was true, and the family 
 was lessened by three. 
 
 The mother bass whirled and reflexively 
 darted for the deep ; then came back trem- 
 bling to the terrified school. For a moment 
 the fret to be away was swallowed up in 
 the old maternal solicitude. 
 
 But for a moment only. She huddled the 
 little ones together, then hung motionless 
 
THE SPAWN 15 
 
 above them. Suddenly she looked tired. 
 There was noticeable now a leanness of 
 body, a weariness about the heavy cartilage 
 of her mouth. Her eyes were spent. 
 Through them she surveyed the little ones, 
 and sadly, as though the moment of farewell 
 occasioned a wordless regret. Anxiety was 
 there too, as if she hesitated to leave them 
 unprotected in a life so full of peril. 
 
 A minute passed, while mother surveyed 
 her tiny spawn. Then a soft wind moved on 
 the face of the waters. Tiny wavelets 
 riffled the surface and broke in soft 
 cadence on the pebbly shore. 
 
 It was a call, a signal to the cool feeding 
 grounds. From the mother bass the droop 
 disappeared, weariness vanished. She 
 seemed to knit together with a growing 
 energy. She lifted nearer the surface, 
 swung about and headed out. The opening 
 and closing of gills, a flash of the supple 
 caudal fin, and she was gone. 
 
 She had said farewell, leaving her little 
 ones to grow and develop according to the 
 form and purpose determined for them by 
 nature, the great mother of us all. 
 
II 
 
 m 
 
 HE family of tiny bass was to make 
 
 its home in the cove. Nor was ever 
 
 a mansion built for the residence of 
 
 man more beautiful than this sheltered 
 
 recess. 
 
 Lone Pine Lake is itself worthy of full- 
 est acquaintance. It is a lake of the high 
 mountains, formed partly by nature, aided 
 by a three-foot dyke of man's building at 
 the outlet, and fed by a blue stream from the 
 north. 
 
 This dyke of man's making accounts for 
 many of the fascinating surprises of the 
 lake. Before it was built, some of what is 
 now water was then sloping meadow, 
 
 i6 
 
INFANCY 17 
 
 crossed and criscrossed by broad stone 
 fences. Now, these ribs of stone run far 
 into the lake, wonderful as home of rock 
 bass, splendid means whereby the angler 
 may wade to deeper water, and magic reefs 
 for white waves in a high wind. 
 
 Surrounding the entire body of water are 
 the trees: slender tamaracks lifting like 
 artists' brushes dipped in pale green paint 
 on the broad canvas of the sky; white 
 birches with boles eight and ten inches in 
 diameter, and smooth as the throat of a 
 swan; oaks with the omnipresent sprouts 
 about their bases ; and beech, their branches 
 sweeping low. 
 
 The water rises slightly in winter and 
 falls in summer, so that at fishing time there 
 is a rim around the lake bare of foliage, 
 and covered here with great black bowlders, 
 there with pebbles and sand. 
 
 The lake itself changes with the whim of 
 the day. Of early morning it lies still and 
 warm, a white fog playing yard high over 
 the surface. As the sun touches it the mist 
 vanishes and the waters lie in the embrace 
 of light like a green park close-mown. 
 
 Mid-afternoon finds the breezes playing 
 
i8 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 over the surface, sending soft waves to lap 
 the shore, catching up riffles far out and 
 causing them to leap and fall like tiny 
 whitecaps. 
 
 Water-bugs form in groups near the shore 
 and swim indolently, their black glossy 
 backs like ebony buttons on a plush table. 
 Water Striders hop awkwardly about, 
 and the Ephemerid flies low over the water. 
 
 Of evening there is about the whole lake 
 the mysterious air of life. Gnats drop into 
 the water to be snapped up by smaller fry. 
 From 'way up in the river inlet the bullfrog 
 croaks a hoarse mating call. Trees cast a 
 darkening shadow, then none at all. The 
 hum of insects is in the air. A luckless moth 
 drops down, and instantly there is a swirl 
 of water and the open mouth of a great bass. 
 Along pickerel, tapering as an Indian bow, 
 leaps up and disappears, leaving scarcely a 
 ripple behind. 
 
 It was on this lake, and in a cove of it, 
 that the mother bass, her spawning over, 
 left her family. The bottom here tapered 
 gently to the shore. A great bowlder, half 
 out of water and near the bank, provided 
 crannies and a cool shade. A small white 
 
INFANCY 19 
 
 birch grew low, and its branches hung 
 partly over the water. 
 
 For a few days the school of tiny bass 
 did little more than wriggle in the water. 
 They partook of no food. It was as if there 
 was that within them that sustained life and 
 impelled growth without sustenance. Even 
 as a grain of wheat placed in water seems 
 to have life within it that, coupled with the 
 nourishment it receives from the water, will 
 enable it to sprout and reach a certain 
 growth, so the tiny bass seemed to develop 
 from within save as the water sustained 
 them. 
 
 Then faint hunger pangs quickened them 
 and they fed, now on minute Crustacea to be 
 found on the bottom, now on insect larvae 
 that drifted through the water, and occa- 
 sionally on the small insects that fell upon 
 the surface. 
 
 For three months their history is a record 
 en masse. They lived together in a group 
 no one member of which was particularly 
 set apart from the others. Seen from above, 
 the school resembled the shadow of a fragile 
 shawl thrown on the surface of the water. 
 Of individuation, whereby one became 
 
20 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 marked or distinguished from the other, 
 there was none. They were a single family, 
 and their home was the common water. 
 
 Yet even in this early period some mys- 
 terious selective agency seemed interfering 
 with life. Without apparent cause, many 
 turned their bellies up and died. They rose 
 to the top and floated there, tiny white 
 bodies an inch long, with big heads and 
 slight crimson slits at the under gills. Na- 
 ture had rejected these as unfit. 
 
 Others fared differently. When the lake 
 was unusually rough and the waves swept 
 shoreward, they were carried to the land. 
 They could not stem the inward current; 
 and once cast ashore they could not flap back 
 down. They were accordingly left to die, 
 far up on the dry. It was the price nature 
 exacted for their weakness. 
 
 Twice havoc was wrought in another and 
 more tragic manner. On a memorable 
 afternoon a great black shape slipped 
 through the water and bore down on the 
 school. He swam aggressively, and struck 
 with the speed of wind. When his great 
 jaws closed five of the little school slid down 
 his wide gullet. 
 
INFANCY 21 
 
 He hung for a moment, alert for sight of 
 others, then jerked about and continued on 
 his way. The spirit that broods over the 
 waters saw his raid and smiled : he was the 
 father of the school, and had fed on his 
 own young. 
 
 Six days after this something else hap- 
 pened. It was an occurrence to start reflec- 
 tion over the accomplishment of maturity; 
 to cause one to think that all nature is 
 against the young, and that the few 
 who survive and reach adulthood have 
 achieved a signal victory not vouchsafed to 
 the many. 
 
 A second bass swam into the cove, paler 
 of color than the first, and more slender. 
 She bore the markings of the female, for 
 she was the mother of the spawn. 
 
 With sure confidence she charged the 
 school. Some leaped clear of the water in 
 their convulsive terror to escape. Others 
 darted for the protection of the friendly 
 bowlder, to hang trembling in its crevices. 
 But a few were less nimble. For their 
 inability to escape they paid the forfeit that 
 sooner or later nature ever exacts from all 
 of her children less fitted than others to sur- 
 
22 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 vive : they reposed as food in the very body 
 where four months before they had lain as 
 eggs ready for the spawn. 
 
 Nor was this heartless; it is merely na- 
 ture's way. With the bass there is no such 
 organ as memory in the sense in which we 
 understand the term. The bass has no 
 cortex, and the cortex is the brain center in 
 which our memories are stored. 
 
 With the fish memory is physiological. 
 In the presence of external stimuli they are 
 roused to anger or lulled to contentment 
 or stirred to regard. But when the external 
 factors are removed they do not recall the 
 state produced by them, as men do. In joy 
 man recalls his sorrow; in joy the bass 
 merely and only experiences joy. 
 
 Man's mind expresses itself in three 
 directions : toward the past, which is mem- 
 ory; toward the present, which is realiza- 
 tion ; and toward the future, which is antici- 
 pation. With the bass there is only the 
 present. 
 
 So in this case. When the pressure of 
 her eggs led the mother bass to deposit them, 
 the action called forth in her the whole 
 series of movements connected with the 
 
INFANCY 23 
 
 maternal process. She prepared and pro- 
 tected her nest, and guarded the young four 
 days, but when she bade them farewell the 
 set of instincts called out by the natal proc- 
 esses vanished with her going. 
 
 Maternity over, she was again the bold 
 feeder. In the presence of her own young 
 she now felt only the hunger call. Memory 
 of them she had none; so on them she fed 
 and was satisfied.^ 
 
 So it was with this school, that in the 
 midst of life there was always death. Na- 
 ture eliminated the unfit. Sometimes by 
 disease from within, or by waves from with- 
 out; or, again, by the foraging of carnivori, 
 the school was cut down. 
 
 But always some escaped. Nature kills, 
 but nature makes provision for life. While 
 some perished others thrived. And through 
 the very activity expended in escaping death 
 they developed a greater hardihood than 
 had their lives been an existence of security. 
 They fought to live, and the fighting made 
 them fit to live. 
 
 So passed five months. And at the end 
 
 iPor a fuller diicussion of the psychology of fish, the reader is referred to the 
 admirable article in The Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution, 1899, pp, 
 377ff. 
 
24 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 the family was not a mass struggling col- 
 lectively; it was an aggregate of individuals, 
 each expressive both of the native tendencies 
 born with his organism and of the scars he 
 had received in his own life struggles. 
 
 Because of this individuation the family 
 may no longer be considered en masse, but 
 separately, each as playing his distinct role 
 in the great act we call life. 
 
Ill 
 
 0ISH are not named at the beginning 
 of life, as people are. When they 
 finally are, the name is not a word, 
 but an attitude. A fish's name to other fish 
 is the mental impression they have of him, 
 inarticulate but real. 
 
 Leaper is the name of one of the fish of 
 our school, not because he is so addressed 
 by the others, but because the dominant 
 thought of him is that he leaps through and 
 out of the water more gracefully than any 
 other member of the family. 
 
 Had they been possessed of words, as we 
 are, they would have named him accord- 
 ingly. Lacking these, they simply had the 
 
 25 
 
26 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 thought without the word symbol for it. 
 But because this is a tale for men, human 
 symbols must be used to indicate the fishes' 
 thought. 
 
 At the age of five months Old Black Bass 
 was the largest member of his school. From 
 tip to tip he measured six and one half 
 inches. Furthermore he displayed a rugged 
 hardihood that made him appear more ma- 
 ture and formidable than his fellows. 
 
 He was on this morning occupying his 
 favorite place by the great bowlder and 
 just beneath the overhanging bough of the 
 birch. The spot was favored by him, since 
 the bowlder provided protection and the 
 bough many luscious morsels; and it was 
 possessed by him because his size enabled 
 him to get what he should want. 
 
 The day was warm. On the bank beyond 
 the bowlder sounds of laughter punctuated 
 the awkward efforts of a little baby learning 
 to walk. The little fellow toddled toward 
 the shore line and with a great show of 
 effort tossed a golden orange into the 
 water. 
 
 Revolving round and round, it floated 
 gayly out to the big rock. Old Black Bass 
 
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY 27 
 
 sank deeper to avoid any possible danger, 
 then rose tentatively for closer inspection. 
 
 The orange seemed harmless. He even 
 punched it with his nose, looking ridicu- 
 lously serious the while. Behind him and 
 beneath there was a great rush: the entire 
 school was advancing to explore. 
 
 Leaper the Delightful, always frolicsome 
 and gay, darted upward and with swirl of 
 tail spun the sphere round and round. He 
 darted beyond it and returned ; leaped clear 
 of the water and encircled it, his small body 
 flashing in the sun. 
 
 It became a game. Nick-fin struck from 
 beneath and the orange bobbed up and 
 down. Even little Sidie, who had not been 
 acting just right of late, joined in the sport. 
 And, seeing her coming, Leaper cleared the 
 way for her so she might have a free chance 
 clear of the others. 
 
 The little fellows were sportive. They 
 leaped clear of the water and came down 
 panting but thrilled. They churned the 
 surface to a tiny turmoil at which they grew 
 excited and fled only to return again. 
 
 The game then took on the nature of a 
 training. For just as among humans play 
 
28 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 is often a preparation for life where the girl 
 with her dolls learns the art of motherhood 
 and the boy with his gun the knack of 
 defense, so now the play became a prepara- 
 tion for later life. 
 
 They struck at the orange. From all 
 angles they darted for it, measuring dis- 
 tance, calculating velocity, and ever striving 
 for accuracy. All except Old Black Bass. 
 
 When the play first began he subsided 
 and drew apart. From his vantage he 
 watched with what amounted to downright 
 disdain the caperings of his brothers and 
 sisters. Only once did he seem pleased — 
 when Leaper struck wild. 
 
 It was not until Gloria struck that the 
 thing seemed to grow personal with him. 
 But when she advanced, missed, and re- 
 turned in some confusion, he darted im- 
 periously out. 
 
 He had a way of attracting attention, for 
 at five months he was a grandstander. Now 
 all retired to give him room. And he 
 struck. He struck with uncommon preci- 
 sion and strength, sending the orange whirl- 
 ing a full foot. He turned, cast a veiled 
 glance at Gloria, and swam away. 
 
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY 29 
 
 Then tragedy stalked in. Near the bot- 
 tom of the bowlder was an oblong cavity 
 where stone and earth failed to meet. It 
 formed a blind tunnel seven inches high 
 and four wide in along the side of the rock. 
 
 This tunnel was eschewed by all, yet all 
 were itchingly curious about it, for the fish 
 is possessed of a constant curiosity. So 
 when all were together and one started to 
 enter it, there was such a storm of dis- 
 approval as to keep him out. 
 
 But when the game started about the 
 orange White Belly slunk away, circled the 
 bowlder, came again in sight of the others 
 and finding himself unobserved, slipped 
 into the cave. 
 
 It was wonderful within. The bowlder 
 on the right was slick and black; the earth 
 to the left smooth and cool. It was a relief 
 from the heat without. He went clear to 
 the end and turned. The entrance a yard 
 away showed blue and beautiful. 
 
 He decided to remain a while. He 
 flapped his tail, and in the narrow confines 
 the water swirled about him. He did this 
 again and again, then rested, thinking of 
 the triumph he should achieve on his return 
 
30 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 to the school. There should be a major rush 
 to the cave when he should tell ; but nothing 
 could take from him the distinction of hav- 
 ing been first to enter and explore. 
 
 His tail was to the entrance now, but he 
 knew when the small opening was darkened. 
 He whirled quickly, sudden unaccountable 
 alarm rushing over him. 
 
 In the entrance was a turtle; a small, 
 ugly, fiery-eyed little reptile that was re- 
 garding him intently, its expression made 
 hideous by the underthrust of its lower jaw. 
 
 White Belly was palpitant with terror. 
 This object he had always feared, not so 
 much because he had learned to fear it, but 
 because he was born afraid of it, as man is 
 of a snake. His small bivalvular heart 
 throbbed with his terror. 
 
 The turtle's look became cunning. Its 
 beady eyes glowed with satisfaction. It 
 poised itself like a hand placed over the 
 entrance, its neck thrust forward, its short 
 front legs keeping it in position. 
 
 With a violent propulsive movement of 
 his tail White Belly scudded swiftly for a 
 momentary opening between the reptile's 
 head and left fore foot. 
 
'The bass was terrified at sight of this traditional enemy." 
 
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY 31 
 
 But quick as he was the turtle was swifter. 
 Its toothless beak fell like a hammer and 
 stopped the rush, sending the little bass 
 shuddering backward. 
 
 The shock halted him, and for a moment 
 he delayed ; but not the turtle. It was quick 
 to seize its advantage, and paddled cannily 
 up the tunnel. Like a pugilist pressed on 
 before he recovers from a blow, White 
 Belly tried desperately to recover and evade 
 the oncoming foe. He hurried the two feet 
 to the end of the channel in a wild blind 
 effort; turned and darted swiftly from side 
 to side as if to unsettle his antagonist's pur- 
 pose. 
 
 But on it came. A swift-moving leg 
 seemed unexpectedly right under the fish. 
 A sharp black claw caught at the left gills 
 and tore them. A blood vessel broke, and 
 the water carried a dark stain. 
 
 He was but five months old. The average 
 life of a bass is eight years and that of man 
 forty. So comparatively White Belly was 
 the age of a two and a half year old child. 
 He was no match in cleverness or strength 
 for this traditional enemy. 
 
 The loss of blood both weakened and 
 
32 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 terrified him. He turned partly on his side, 
 tried desperately to right himself and flee, 
 but could not. The round shape became 
 more confident. A long stringy neck 
 covered with dark loose skin extended, and 
 on it the horny head. The mouth opened, 
 showing red and toothless. 
 
 It closed just back of the bass's dorsal. 
 He made a last struggle, wriggling as one 
 with tail held stationary, but he did it with- 
 out hope. 
 
 Outside the cave the sport with the orange 
 had been broken up by another and more 
 novel diversion. The churning of the 
 water caused by the sport had caught the 
 attention of one with the picnicking party 
 who had brought his tackle along. 
 
 Something more wonderful than the 
 orange was now in the water though it did 
 not float as the orange floated. It appeared 
 to be a little fish like themselves, only it fell 
 on the water far out and then swam zigzag 
 fashion for the shore. It did this many 
 times. 
 
 All the little bass were curious about this 
 strange sight; but Leaper especially was 
 tantalized beyond endurance. Especially as 
 
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY 33 
 
 the funny little minnow raked above his 
 head and started for the shore, did he feel 
 an irrepressible urge to follow it — like a 
 cat that simply must chase the vanishing 
 ball. 
 
 He made a quick strike; but as most of 
 his play practice had been with stationary 
 objects, he missed. But undismayed he 
 leaped clear of the water and rejoined his 
 comrades. 
 
 Hump Back, so called because while the 
 backs of the others arched but slightly his 
 was pronouncedly convex, saw Leaper's 
 effort and himself resolved to try. 
 
 On the next appearance of the object he 
 struck. His aim was true, but his subse- 
 quent actions were peculiar. Instead of 
 returning, he followed his strike to the shore 
 and disappeared. 
 
 An interval of silence. Then a disap- 
 pointed voice on the shore which the fish 
 did not hear or hearing would not have 
 understood, spoke its irritation. 
 
 "Darnl Undersize!" 
 
 "Goin' to throw 'im back?" another voice 
 queried. 
 
 "Yes. Not worth scalin'." 
 
34 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 He tore the hook from the fragile mouth, 
 held the little bass up, and as a man would 
 strike a handball, batted him back into the 
 water. 
 
 He turned over and over, then lay gasp- 
 ing. The cartilage of his mouth was torn, 
 but this gave him no pain. The pain he 
 felt was in his side. Where the hand had 
 struck him the scales were ruffled and 
 broken, causing dull irritation. The water' 
 did not slip from him here, but clung to his 
 skin and fretted him. His companions 
 swam nearer and looked at him curiously, 
 but understood not — save one. 
 
 The next day the pain was more acute. 
 The reason was that poison in the water had 
 searched out the wound and infected it. A 
 red abrasion appeared, the scales dropping 
 away. 
 
 Vainly he tried to escape. He swam 
 against small stones to remove it; whipped 
 his small tail to shake it off. But it grew 
 worse. It spread. The pain and the hectic 
 activity wore him down. 
 
 The third day he swam nearer and nearer 
 the surface. He turned belly up, and at 
 times gulped air through his gills. But he 
 
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY 35 
 
 was conquered. On the fourth day he was 
 still. 
 
 Only Sidie had understood his struggle, 
 and she but partly. From the fourth month 
 she had not been well. Something within 
 her gave way then, and she found great 
 difficulty in swimming erect. In spite of 
 her efforts she would turn partly on her 
 side. 
 
 None knew the effort she made to over- 
 come this. But when she saw Hump Back, 
 her own malady enabled her to compre- 
 hend something of his struggles. Near him 
 the last day she tried to learn something of 
 his mishap, but got only the impression that 
 somewhere on the shore had been an enemy 
 more terrible than all others. 
 
 It was then that the spirit which broods 
 over the waters smiled in cynicism, for he 
 knew that the creature which among men is 
 called "highest" may be the greatest 
 enemy of the fish. For while the turtle kills 
 for food, this "highest" often mangles and 
 kills needlessly and through his own irrita- 
 tion. 
 
 If you should ever visit Lone Pine Lake, 
 you will find there anglers you would be 
 
36 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 glad to know. But a grumbler often fishes 
 there, whose plaint is the growing scarcity 
 of fish. He is the man who caused the death 
 of Hump Back; and what he did to Hump 
 Back he has done to many others. 
 
IV 
 
 Q 
 
 HE development of Old Black Bass 
 
 that first year illustrates the law that 
 
 to him that hath shall be given and 
 
 from him that hath not shall be taken av^ay 
 
 even that which he hath. 
 
 By some queer quirk of physical heredity 
 he had entered into the inheritance of a 
 body destined to make him a fish among ten 
 thousand. Already his proportions were 
 exceptional. His body was richly dark 
 with the glow of unimpaired health. The 
 maxillary of his large mouth swept back 
 well behind the eye, and made his strike 
 for food deadly sure. His thick, flat back 
 was ribbed with nine sharp spines, and be- 
 37 
 
38 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 hind them the thirteen rays flared in a 
 graceful arch. Ten rows of glossy scales 
 were on his cheek and sixty-eight adown 
 the smooth lateral line of his body. When 
 he moved through the water it was with 
 the precision of a highly complex but won- 
 derfully efficient machine. 
 
 True he was awkward, for the bass is 
 seldom a graceful fish, but in his very awk- 
 wardness was suggestion of smoldering 
 strength, like the awkward but sleeping 
 muscularity of the untamed lumber- 
 jack. 
 
 And having this body through inherit- 
 ance, more accrued to him as a result of it. 
 The best feeding grounds about the cove he 
 took by right of prowess. While the others 
 were limited in their range, his untiring 
 energy enabled him to forage farther and 
 longer than they, and therefore fare better. 
 His strike at swimming luckless frogs was 
 speedier and more sure; and when many 
 made for the same morsel, his strength let 
 him crowd the others away and gobble it 
 down. 
 
 Consequently, he seldom went hungry. 
 While the youthful appetites of the others 
 
NATURAL SELECTION 39 
 
 often were unappeased, his maw was ever 
 full. He grew faster than they, not alone 
 because he was born to a greater size but 
 also because the abundance of his food 
 added new tissue to his frame. 
 
 But, as so often happens to the one who 
 finds himself able to overcome all obstacles 
 and triumph over his kind, his very suc- 
 cesses proved elements in his failure. By 
 saving his life he was in a fair way to lose 
 it. 
 
 Always inclined to feel superior, he be- 
 came arrogant with his victories. He grew 
 domineering. Imperiously he slashed his 
 brothers and sisters, intolerant of their 
 weakness and contemptuous of their help- 
 fulness to each other. Yet with all his im- 
 periousness the same was true of him as of 
 men with similar dispositions: he was in- 
 satiable in his desire for flattery and adula- 
 tion. He wanted to be admired, feared, 
 praised, deferred to, respected, acclaimed. 
 
 There were in the school some who were 
 willing to accord him all these, just as 
 among men there are always kotowers to 
 the supercilious. But others were less 
 deferential. Especially Leaper. Genial 
 
40 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 and social, a good loser as well as a gener- 
 ous victor, he embodied that fine combina- 
 tion of ambition and sociality so admirable 
 in the human realm. To him further had 
 been vouchsafed a mild and subtle sense of 
 humor that played gayly over the whole of 
 life. 
 
 Old Black Bass struck violently at a par- 
 ticle fallen into the water, and came down 
 shaking from his jaws the empty shell of a 
 locust blown from afar on the wind. His 
 mortification at this lack of judgment was so 
 manifest that Leaper could not refrain from 
 opening and closing his mouth in lugubrious 
 imitation. 
 
 A ripple of amusement passed over the 
 school. To check it at the very outset Old 
 Black Bass whirled belligerently, and many 
 subsided quickly. But Leaper knew no 
 fear. With another dolorous opening and 
 closing of his mouth he held his place. Con- 
 flict was imminent when Gloria slipped be- 
 tween them and flashed her shapely body 
 through the air. But though this was diver- 
 sion, the entire school sensed that here was 
 enmity that should never die. 
 
 Old Black Bass knew then that in the 
 
NATURAL SELECTION 41 
 
 school might be found here and there an 
 attitude toward him not of admiration ; and 
 brooding alone that evening he chewed the 
 cud of his mortification and found it bitter. 
 But, like many of his type among the higher 
 vertebrates, he concluded that the needed 
 thing was a more complete showing of his 
 prowess, and so bided his time. 
 
 Then a change came over nature, slight 
 at first but more apparent with the hurrying 
 days. Out on the shore the tamaracks lost 
 their luscious green and aged ; leaves of the 
 birch fell and skimmed like frail canoes 
 over the water ; oak leaves turned brown and 
 rattled in the biting wind. 
 
 It was the approach of winter. Notice- 
 able first in the lake was the absence of food. 
 No longer did the breeze come freighted 
 with its burden of insects. Gnats ceased to 
 fall. Only little frogs, green and tender, 
 hung in the water's edge. In the shallows 
 it was cold. 
 
 One day Old Black Bass was nosing close 
 in when a tiny snake descried him and 
 wriggled frantically for the shore. But the 
 rush of the carnivore was too swift. 
 Knotted into a ball the little reptile felt the 
 
42 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 crunch of sharp teeth and slid down 
 through warm darkness. 
 
 Water grew colder. But the fish were 
 not dismayed. For with a knowledge that 
 came to them from out the far past they 
 knew that this was in the order of nature. 
 Just as geese honk wedge-shaped to the 
 South with changing wind, so the bass 
 moved toward the deep. 
 
 Gregarious they were, as is the prairie 
 dog or the beaver; and this instinct kept 
 the school together. Far out in the water 
 was a break in the wide wall of a great stone 
 fence, and here they made their winter 
 quarters. 
 
 Then began an ordeal of endurance 
 which nature must have considered her 
 Great Eliminator. Just as with men civil 
 service examinations are held to weed out 
 the less capable and select the most efficient 
 for placement, so nature would use winter 
 on the school of bass to eliminate the weak 
 and select those of greatest hardihood to 
 perpetuate the species. 
 
 Sidie was the first to go. The ailment 
 which had not been severe enough to elimi- 
 nate her when the water was warm and the 
 
NATURAL SELECTION 43 
 
 food plentiful, soon put her out of the race 
 in this new environment. And closely fol- 
 lowing her went five more. Even Leaper 
 felt the pinch of the first month. 
 
 But not Old Black Bass. His solitary dis- 
 position often sent him to forage alone. His 
 strength, furthermore, enabled him to go 
 farther than the others, enlarging the di- 
 ameter of his feeding-ground. 
 
 On a day he made a discovery. Follow- 
 ing a stone fence in search of food, he saw 
 in a cranny a small sunfish. A voice from 
 within told him he should be but mildly 
 interested here, but the hunger urge silenced 
 the voice. 
 
 He bore down. The little fish should 
 have slipped farther back into the protec- 
 tion of the stones, but its fear blurred its 
 instinct. It darted out and circled, trust- 
 ing to its swiftness. But with mouth open 
 and sharp teeth bare, the carnivore con- 
 quered. The sharp spines of the little fish 
 caused a stabbing pain in his stomach, but 
 the comforting bulk meant more. He swam 
 back to his companions with unruffled com- 
 placence. 
 
 Leaper and Gloria were together, and the 
 
44 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 sight angered him. He rushed Leaper and 
 by superior strength drove him away. 
 Then he returned to Gloria and she slipped 
 up to him, extending her mouth till it 
 touched his side. He hung in contentment, 
 fanning the water with pectoral and pelvic 
 fins. 
 
 The black bass can accommodate himself 
 to a wide range of water variation. He 
 will live with ice above him, and thrive 
 when the temperature of his medium is lOO 
 degrees Fahrenheit. So now: It was not 
 the water so much that troubled the school ; 
 it was hunger. 
 
 Hunger broods irritation ; irritation, con- 
 flict. If Swarthy had been a human, he 
 would have aspired to be a gunman; and 
 doubtless Fusser would have enriched the 
 ranks of the reformers. For while Swarthy 
 was sullen and direct in his disposition and 
 method, Fusser was forever trying to ar- 
 range things. Her advice as to foraging was 
 copious and inaccurate; her *^I-told-you- 
 so's" were ceaseless. 
 
 In the hunger and confinement this 
 ubiquitous meddling infuriated Swarthy. 
 A few weeks back he had been either too 
 
NATURAL SELECTION 45 
 
 busy to notice it, or too satisfied to take it 
 seriously. But now everything was magni- 
 fied. Differences became mountainous; 
 idiosyncrasies, insulting. 
 
 The school was moving slowly and aim- 
 lessly along the fence, the stones already 
 bare and slick with the fanning of innumer- 
 able fins, when Fusser began her customary 
 interference. Food, she declared, might be 
 found if they looked more carefully ; swim- 
 ming slower would be much less tiring; the 
 other side of the fence, as being toward the 
 south, doubtless was much better. It was 
 then that Swarthy broke. 
 
 He rushed Fusser and gave her a sharp 
 stab in the side. Surprised and indignant, 
 she would have maneuvered for an argu- 
 ment, but he wanted none. He rushed her 
 again, viciously. Her method would have 
 been to enlist group aid to curb individual 
 depredations, but Swarthy was for direct 
 action. He stabbed her with his spines. 
 
 She sped here and there like a woman 
 throwing up her hands in holy indignation 
 and demanding that the social conscience 
 awake. But, to her utter amazement, she 
 found the very ones for whom she had done 
 
46 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 so much strangely unmoved. Swarthy 
 kept after her. Finally she turned on him, 
 as from time immemorial the pacifist has 
 turned when cornered, and turning, gave 
 Swarthy a taste of his own medicine. 
 
 It was an hour later that the struggle 
 ended ; but when it was over, both Swarthy 
 and Fusser floated lifeless on the surface. 
 For fish are no wiser than men : when nature 
 would allow them to live they often elimi- 
 nate themselves. 
 
 Old Black Bass did not witness the con- 
 flict. He was following a secret search for 
 the distant sunfish. Since discovering the 
 first one, he had returned again and again, 
 and always with success. And the ease with 
 which he procured food deepened his con- 
 tempt for the others. 
 
 But great pride usually comes just before 
 a fall. And so now. In the very midst of 
 his own foraging grounds Old Black Bass 
 saw a stranger loitering; and seeing him was 
 on the instant furiously angry. He tore vi- 
 ciously forward, bent on utter destruction. 
 
 The stranger was one of his own kind, a 
 great black bass of five summers, confident 
 and strong. On scales he would have 
 
NATURAL SELECTION 47 
 
 weighed a pound for every year of his 
 age. 
 
 All fish are nearsighted, due to the con- 
 vexity of the lense of the eye; so Old Black 
 Bass was almost upon the intruder before he 
 got his measure. Even then he kept on, so 
 accustomed had he become to undisputed 
 dominance. 
 
 But the stranger was unafraid. Non- 
 chalantly he turned, and with his thick mus- 
 cular shoulder took the full blow. Like the 
 pugilist who, to show his own invincibility 
 and the other's weakness, turns his unpro- 
 tected face full to his opponent. The blow 
 shook the big bass not at all. He merely 
 squared himself indolently to observe his 
 attacker. For a moment they poised observ- 
 ant. The older fish was gorged with food, 
 else, large as he was. Old Black Bass would 
 have been grist for a voracious mill. 
 
 Then the big bass suppressed what would 
 have amounted to a twinkle in his eye. He 
 simulated a towering rage before which Old 
 Black Bass shrank back. A churning of 
 water, and he felt himself knocked into the 
 air. He fell back, only to find his enemy 
 waiting. He was as a cat playing with a 
 
48 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 mouse. He circled the smaller fish; rushed 
 at him open-mouthed, only to stop short; 
 flapped him with his tail and turned him 
 over. With a final dash he struck mid-side 
 and sent him careening. Then, boredly, he 
 turned and continued along the fence. 
 
 Old Black Bass cast an affrighted glance 
 after him, then made to return to his school, 
 only to find that in his efforts to escape he 
 had drawn very near to it. A scant yard 
 away Leaper and Gloria hugged a sharp 
 rock. They had been frightened observers 
 of the struggle. 
 
 Knowledge that they had seen all occa- 
 sioned the most bitter moment of Old Black 
 Bass's life. A poor loser by disposition, he 
 recked not that either Gloria or Leaper 
 would have fared worse in the encounter 
 than he. To him was only the bitter realiza- 
 tion that they had witnessed his discom- 
 fiture. When Gloria advanced gracefully 
 to meet him, and even Leaper swam gener- 
 ously over, he wheeled moodily and dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 That evening he was viciously irritable. 
 For a fancied insult he struck in succession 
 two of his companions, and with such force 
 
NATURAL SELECTION 49 
 
 as to burst their air bladders. They wab- 
 bled queerly, then flopped over and died. 
 
 Rebellion began to brew. Black looks fol- 
 lowed his movements, and groups of three 
 and four knotted together here and there as 
 if in consultation. But to each and all his 
 bearing was a bold challenge of force. 
 Alone of all the school Gloria seemed to 
 fear him not at all. Indeed, it was as though 
 his unconquerable temper drew from her 
 an attitude of submission, a submission born 
 not of fear but of admiration. As on an- 
 other occasion, so now she swam up to him 
 and touched his side lightly, her body 
 squaring gracefully with his. 
 
 Then came real winter. Snow flurried to 
 the black water. Waves were lashed by a 
 wind that whistled fiercely among the bare 
 trees. The fish grew comatose. Their 
 bodies chilled, energy seemed to vanish, 
 and they lay close down as in a stupor. 
 
 Two months they remained thus, feed- 
 ing as though from within. Then great 
 cosmic voices whispered to the world that 
 spring was approaching. Unseen forces 
 broke the bonds of winter and liberated the 
 waters. 
 
50 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 The fish awoke. Instincts formed in the 
 far racial past informed them of the change, 
 and whispered to them of adulthood. They 
 quickened. A smaller school because of the 
 selections of nature, they yet were a fitter 
 because only the hardy had survived. They 
 leaped to the call of spring. 
 
VEN as in springtime newly bare- 
 foot children run round and round 
 the house in abandon of exhilara- 
 tion, so the school of fish felt their spirits 
 lift in unaccountable urge to frolic. 
 
 April clouds dropped their warm showers 
 on the water and the fish watched the funny 
 disturbance and grew both excited and irre- 
 pressibly playful. Their leapings added to 
 the excitement; their rushing churned the 
 water more than the rain. 
 
 In very excess of exuberance a race was 
 staged, not deliberately, for fish do not de- 
 liberate, but spontaneously and reflexly, 
 SI 
 
52 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 caused by the quick darting away of the 
 supple Swift. 
 
 Swift led at the start, slipping through 
 the soft water like an arrow shot through 
 the air. Spot saw her go and leaped in 
 pursuit like the bounding bounce of a rab- 
 bit. Clumsy and Red-eye, Old Black Bass, 
 Leaper and Gloria, Wall-eye and Gap — the 
 school was a fleeting shadow. 
 
 Rocks flashed by, a broken birch was 
 skirted so swiftly that the rearward ones 
 scarce knew the cause of the swerving ; and 
 leading the way was Swift. 
 
 Swift of the flying waters, pectoral and 
 ventral flat against her body, anal and rays 
 of dorsal flared into a rudder, body whip- 
 ping and straightening too rapidly for the 
 eyel The wide caudal fin, like the leaves of 
 a propeller, caught the water and flinging 
 it back increased the velocity. 
 
 She was enjoying it. Cool, energizing 
 water touched her sides after the comatose 
 winter and washed her clean. Impurities 
 slipped away as carbon is blown from a 
 valve. 
 
 But close behind was Leaper, body a fly- 
 ing arrow. Like a wing-footed racer put- 
 
EMERGENCE OF A BULLY 53 
 
 ting himself on the stretch, he flung for- 
 ward in hot pursuit. It was their race. 
 The others fell back, unable to keep the 
 pace. 
 
 Leaper gained. Everything he had he 
 used. And he gained another inch. His 
 head was at Swift's tail and creeping slowly 
 to her pectoral. Intoxication of achieve- 
 ment gave him added energy. With great 
 surge he flung forward. He would win! 
 
 But have you ever seen Collie race with 
 Greyhound? Then you know how Collie 
 flattens out, tearing along, ears laid back. 
 You know how she gains and creeps up. But 
 you know more: the apparent ease with 
 which the long lean body of the hound 
 flexes, and the incredible speed that fol- 
 lows! 
 
 So it was with Swift. When Leaper 
 nosed her pectoral, without apparent greater 
 effort on her part she slipped away and 
 left him. Then stopped and waited, twin- 
 kling, to let him come along. 
 
 The others overtook them finally, Old 
 Black Bass feigning preoccupation to 
 belittle Swift's and Leaper's achievement 
 and minimize his own defeat. He dis- 
 
54 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 played no amazement or excitement as did 
 the others, but fretted impatiently to be on. 
 
 Straight ahead was a place of witchery 
 for the bass. It was the kind of a spot to 
 which their natures cried out a welcome, 
 even as the human soul cries its welcome to 
 spring; though why the bass loved a place 
 like this they could not have told. 
 
 It was an area of forming lily-pads, of 
 incipient green; an acre of bottom unlike 
 the rocky ledges, but coming luscious and 
 rich. It was as yet too early for the full- 
 formed pads and much of the food. But 
 even so they recognized it as a place of inter- 
 est and attraction, though they had never 
 been there before. It was the Voice; the 
 old Paleozoic Voice that first called to the 
 fishes back in the dim age when vertebrates 
 arose. 
 
 In response to this voice the fish live and 
 move and have their being. It is instinct. 
 It is the call of food, of sex, of gregarious- 
 ness, of sociality. Those without it perish, 
 those having it obey. It called now to the 
 feeding-ground. 
 
 The spot was occupied, for the day was 
 perfect for the fisherman. It was morning. 
 
EMERGENCE OF A BULLY 55 
 
 but the sun was hidden ; it was warm, but a 
 slight breeze made a dancing riffle. 
 
 Scarce had the school entered the beguil- 
 ing region when a gay lure struck the water 
 before them. It lay motionless for a mo- 
 ment, then began a whirling course through 
 the water. It lifted, darted sidewise, 
 dipped; it slackened speed, only to dart 
 away. 
 
 Gap saw the thing, and he was hungry. 
 What with the lean feeding days just passed 
 and the race, the white fiber of his stomach 
 was but a contracted pouch. And here was 
 food, enough to last long. 
 
 He rose to it. But whether from sudden 
 aversion to his kind, or from inexplicable 
 love of shore, he closed on the lure and fol- 
 lowed it to land. 
 
 An interval and the plug came back. It 
 was Leaper's turn. Not that he was so 
 hungry; for three delicious hellgramites 
 had been his luck the day before. But he 
 was curious. He wanted to know what this 
 thing felt like, acted like, tasted like. 
 
 His tail swirled as he struck it and missed. 
 He struck again, determined to satisfy him- 
 self. He connected with the front of it with 
 
'56 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 his superior maxillary, knocking the lure 
 clear out of the water. 
 
 He was measurably satisfied. It was 
 smooth and hard, whatever it was : the bump 
 he had given it shook his head. He re- 
 turned happily to the others and inter- 
 estedly waited. 
 
 Grinnie had preferred to watch rather 
 than participate. Even when the thing 
 spatted the water above her she remained 
 fairly calm. But when it began to depart, 
 something within utterly uncontrollable 
 urged pursuit. She simply could not let it 
 get away. She followed, propelled by the 
 same instinct of movement that drives the 
 cat after the vanishing ball. But she must 
 have gone too far, for she never returned. 
 
 Old Black Bass had been a surly spec- 
 tator. He hungered not, neither did the 
 lure fascinate him. He did feel a vast con- 
 tempt for Leaper when he missed. But he 
 remained aloof, simply watching. 
 
 Time after time the lure raked the water. 
 And finally it got on Old Black Bass's 
 nerves. For what reason should this red 
 and white intruder continue to frolic above 
 him? And since when was it considered 
 
EMERGENCE OF A BULLY 57 
 
 safe to so disturb him with impunity? 
 Clearly this little whippersnapper needed 
 the same lesson the others had so thoroughly 
 learned. 
 
 His anger mounted. He lifted slightly, 
 determined to show it and all the others. 
 When he struck he lunged savagely, open- 
 ing and closing his mouth once, twice, with 
 a queer '^chugging" sound. Only the inex- 
 pertness of the angler saved Old Black Bass, 
 for he was reeling the lure too swiftly, re- 
 solved to change it for another; and the fish 
 was not hooked. 
 
 In vain did he cast again and again. Old 
 Black Bass's anger had disquieted the 
 school, and, refusing to rise again, they 
 went on down the lake in search of a quieter 
 spot. 
 
 Of course the fish did not know it, but 
 they had here given the only true answer to 
 the question asked about so many camp fires 
 of evenings: ^'Why does a bass strike an 
 artificial lure?" And they had answered it 
 by the motive which had impelled each to 
 strike. 
 
 The mind of man is obsessed by a desire 
 to reduce everything to one simple formula. 
 
58 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 He wants one law for each class of phe- 
 nomena: for gravitation, for motive, for 
 worship, one principle for all true govern- 
 ment. And he has sought for one motive to 
 explain every fish's strike. 
 
 He will never find it. One fish differs 
 from another as one dog from another or 
 one boy differs from another boy. The first 
 boy throws a stone through the grocery- 
 man's window because he is mad at the 
 storekeeper; the second does the same thing 
 because he is curious about the result; the 
 third because he is hungry and wants the 
 cookies behind the glass; and the fourth 
 merely because he wants to throw and surg- 
 ing nature is prompting him. 
 
 So do fish strike. One is curious, one 
 hungry, one instinctive in chasing a moving 
 object, one is angry. No explanation that 
 overlooks individual differences to seek a 
 common motive will ever be accurate. To 
 explain a strike is to know the nature of the 
 one fish concerned. 
 
 As the school continued on its way Old 
 Black Bass alone retained his mood. He 
 brooded over the lure. Not so much be- 
 cause he missed it, for he had struck only 
 
EMERGENCE OF A BULLY 59 
 
 to buffet. His brooding took him almost 
 to the realm of abstract thought. For just 
 as in the human realm a Shakespeare is 
 born who knows more of English than the 
 average man, or an Edison of electricity, or 
 a Faraday of physics in general, so Old 
 Black Bass was a genius of his species and 
 as such capable of more than they. 
 
 He came near to fathoming the secret of 
 the artificial lure. Gap and Grinnie, who 
 had not come back, were forgotten incidents 
 with the others. But to Old Black Bass 
 they gave point to an awful lesson. A craw- 
 fish is capable of learning in forty lessons 
 which is the best way to reach food; but 
 Old Black Bass was already learning that 
 not all that cavorts on the water is safe for 
 food. 
 
 From that day onward he discriminated 
 his food. Before taking it he demanded of 
 himself absolute knowledge of its nature. 
 Was it alive, or only cleverly artificial? 
 Was a slender line connected to it, or did it 
 swim free? 
 
 And this canniness put him in the class of 
 rare bass of which the true angler dreams : 
 the subtly clever fish who are wise beyond 
 
6o OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 their kind, and whose wisdom rouses the 
 true fisherman as a rare species lures the 
 hunter. 
 
 And while Old Black Bass did not 
 know the ways of men in the great outside 
 world, there was such a fisherman who 
 should one day visit Lone Pine; and during 
 that visit the wise bass and the clever angler 
 should meet and contend. 
 
 It was the day following that he did an- 
 other of the despicable things that had 
 earned for him the hatred of the entire 
 school. A stone from an old fence slid 
 quickly down and pinned Red-eye by the 
 tail. Gloria hurried quickly to him to help, 
 just as one ram will patiently endeavor to 
 remove the thorn from the head of another. 
 
 And she was succeeding. Red-eye was in 
 a panic and struggling violently while 
 Gloria nosed blindly at the stone. It gave, 
 and the impinioned tail slipped a fraction. 
 
 Then Old Black Bass did an atrocious 
 thing. Why he did it, who knows? Per- 
 haps in a dim way he was angered at him- 
 self that he also had not been quick to aid; 
 but not having proffered such aid, perhaps 
 wanted to show that another kind of action 
 
EMERGENCE OF A BULLY 6i 
 
 was preferable. He struck the helpless 
 Red-eye. It was the act of a bully striking 
 a bound man. Red-eye was stunned. He 
 tried to free himself; but head up in his 
 efforts, was struck again and killed. 
 
 Leaper swam over and nosed his dead 
 comrade; then turned and surveyed Old 
 Black Bass with loathing, and the loathing 
 he felt was in the hearts of all. Old Black 
 Bass from that hour became a stranger 
 though present. He was hated and shunned 
 — but feared. 
 
VI 
 
 QN this tale we must distinguish be- 
 tween a language and a vocabulary. 
 A phonetic vocabulary is possible 
 only to man, for he alone possesses the 
 physiological mechanism to use it. The 
 parrot is excluded, for its vocabulary is to 
 speech what a picture is to reality. 
 
 Consequently, fish have no vocabulary; 
 but they have a language. They talk just as 
 the crow talks when it sends a warning, or 
 the dog when it is hot on the scent. 
 
 We must distinguish also between the 
 
 mental state and the expression of such a 
 
 state. The deaf mute may be angry, though 
 
 he possess no vocabulary with which to up- 
 
 62 
 
THE DESPOILERS 63 
 
 braid ; may love, without being able to speak 
 of it in words. 
 
 So fish may know without giving voice 
 to the knowledge, or feel without vocal ac- 
 companiment. Since, however, this is the 
 story of a fish designed for men to read, the 
 mental and emotional states of the fish may 
 be given their corresponding human word 
 signs, so that all who read may understand. 
 
 It is significant, therefore, that the central 
 figure of this story was early given the name 
 of Old Black Bass. In the human realm 
 are boys old and mature beyond their years, 
 lacking the playful spirit and looking at life 
 through disillusioned eyes. These oldish 
 boys are usually addressed as ^^Old Bill" or 
 ^'Old Tom" or '^Old Dave," the significance 
 being that they are adult and oldish in their 
 attitudes. 
 
 Old Black Bass was so named because he 
 was old in spirit, critical, lacking the play- 
 ful attitude, fiercely belligerent when others 
 were playfully sportive. He discouraged 
 friendliness, scoffed at young helpfulness, 
 hurt cruelly, killed without mercy. 
 
 Men have two kinds of names, the Chris- 
 tian name given to the young child, which is 
 
64 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 a sort of formal appellation for social con- 
 venience; and the nickname, a spontaneous 
 description of the impression one is making 
 on his fellows. Thus his mother calls him 
 Jacob, but to his fellow twelve-year-olds 
 he is Fatty; the family Bible records him as 
 Samuel, but to his playmates he is Red. 
 
 Fish have no formal names, but all are 
 nicknamed. One is Gloria because of the 
 soft sweetness of her disposition, or Spot 
 because of a queer mark on the cheek, or 
 Gap on account of a funny gasping way he 
 had of breathing. So it was Old Black 
 Bass because he was adult in his reactions 
 and sour in disposition. 
 
 The school took advice from him, but 
 were intimate not at all; respected his 
 strength as fearing his anger; curbed the 
 growing hatred toward him only as though 
 biding a better time. 
 
 In May came the mating urge. Just as 
 spring draws the green leaf from dark twig, 
 or morning the sunflower's heart to East, so 
 the warming waters brought to life the 
 mating impulse. On its coming Leaper and 
 Gloria swam gayly away. Clumsy and 
 Wall-eye, Spot and Wriggle, Darter and 
 
THE DESPOILERS 65 
 
 Sober, after a day of strange restlessness, 
 followed them. 
 
 Some of the school remained unmoved 
 by the pervasive call; for some bass spawn 
 not till the second year. These looked upon 
 the restlessness of their fellows and compre- 
 hended it not. 
 
 Old Black Bass had preened in his awk- 
 ward way for the eye of Gloria, while Swift 
 more than once nosed Leaper and frisked 
 for shoreward waters. But he followed not, 
 nor did Gloria have eye for Old Black Bass. 
 When she swam off with Leaper, Old Black 
 Bass went rapidly to Swift and with her 
 went away. 
 
 Back and to over the yard-wide bed went 
 Swift and her companion, fanning clean 
 the stones. With his sturdy nose Old Black 
 Bass moved to one side the stones too large 
 for the bed. The work was tedious and 
 tiring, yet it was accomplished without 
 injury to either. While the trout usually 
 wears caudal fin and tail to the bone in mak- 
 ing its nest, the bass accomplishes the same 
 task without blood. 
 
 The eggs were deposited on the stones, 
 ten thousand in number. Old Black Bass 
 
66 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 fertilized them as they stuck there ; and the 
 vigil of watchfulness began. On the third 
 day as Swift hung above the nest an ancient 
 enemy made quick attack. 
 
 A fish hawk, foe of the bass, from his 
 perch on an oak, saw the dark back moving 
 ceaselessly under the water. He waited, 
 tense for the swoop. Dark back rose nearer 
 surface, and the hawk dropped. 
 
 A clean kill was prevented only by Old 
 Black Bass. He was faithful here because 
 nature held him up. Scarce had he rushed 
 Swift aside when there was quick spat above 
 where she had been. But the disappointed 
 hawk lifted and flapped away with empty 
 talons. Just settled were they when a lively 
 hellgramite fell on the water and sank to 
 the bed. Swift eyed it angrily, but ap- 
 proached it not. It was dragged clumsily 
 over the stones, while she circled above it, 
 extremely annoyed. Then it slipped shore- 
 ward. 
 
 An angler was out there, casting his lures. 
 An out-of-season fisherman, for the law was 
 on bass. But while many men strive to 
 protect the fish, a few also break laws to 
 catch them. 
 
"A fish hawk, ancient foe of the bass, swooped down." 
 
THE DESPOILERS 67 
 
 The hellgramite came back. Swift flew 
 at it, and retaining it by a sucking move- 
 ment of the mouth bore it away and spat it 
 far. Again it reappeared, only to be as 
 speedily removed. 
 
 Then came a frog, a striped pickerel frog 
 of alluring color. It floated and kicked on 
 the surface for full three minutes, then sank 
 slowly down. It dropped to the nest and 
 struggled there. The movements stirred 
 hot anger and resentment in Swift, for they 
 were displacing her eggs. 
 
 Again she darted down. She got the frog 
 and was bearing it away when a strange 
 thing happened. The amphibian was 
 cleverly fastened to an ingenious spring 
 hook, which suddenly snapped apart and 
 caught in her mouth. With the spring, the 
 line tightened. The bass was jerked over 
 backward, but rushed wildly while being 
 reeled in. On the shore the angler took her 
 from the hook and slipped her in a pocket 
 of his hunting coat. Chuckling to himself, 
 he moved on up the lake. 
 
 The nest Swift left behind would thence- 
 forth remain unguarded ; and this meant the 
 death of the life she had placed there. She 
 
68 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 had laid ten thousand eggs, and with her go- 
 ing went the hope that any from her spawn 
 should live. Pickerel found the nest and 
 fed upon the eggs; turtles crawled over it 
 and broke them; dirt drifted over the stones 
 and covered them up. 
 
 But the fisherman was clever. Nine bass 
 he caught that day, and five of them were 
 from the nest, caught with the clever spring 
 hook. One of the five was guarding seventy- 
 five thousand eggs, and the other four a total 
 of thirty-seven thousand. All told, he took 
 the protection from one hundred and twelve 
 thousand possible bass: one hundred and 
 twelve thousand possible stock for the 
 waters of the future — impoverishing the 
 lake for the fisherman who should come 
 after him — making obedience to law a 
 handicap — contributing to the death of a 
 species at its source. 
 
 On his way home this man met the angler 
 who the spring before had caused the death 
 of Hump Back by roughly batting the un- 
 offending little fish into the water, angered 
 that it was undersize. 
 
 "No luck, I bet," he growled. "Ain't 
 no fish any more." 
 
THE DESPOILERS 69 
 
 "Rotten luck," the former agreed. "Only 
 
 nine." 
 
 "Fishin' ain't what it used to be. Onct I 
 could go out and git a mess in an hour." 
 
 "Couldn't we, though?" the first agreed. 
 "But them times ain't any more." 
 
 "I'll say they ain't!" 
 
 "Makes me tired." 
 
 "Me too." 
 
 "Too danged much fishin'." 
 
 "And pollutin' the water." 
 
 "City fellers!" 
 
 "Dudes!" 
 
 It was on the departure of Swift that Old 
 Black Bass for the first time in his life felt 
 a sense of incompleteness that made him 
 vaguely sorrowful. He knew the cause of 
 her departure : he had seen the line running 
 shoreward from the frog. But it was not 
 so much sorrow for her that he felt as it was 
 some obscure troubling of his nature due 
 to this new and sudden isolation. 
 
 It was his first experience of the need of 
 another. From out the depths his nature 
 questioned him and revealed a haunting 
 desire. New and vague, it yet disclosed 
 that within him which, if called out, might 
 
70 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 make him over from the surly, morose na- 
 ture to a disposition truly social and 
 altruistic. 
 
 For a day he lingered about the nest 
 uncertain, even as a puppy whimpers about 
 the litter-bed from which its companions 
 have been taken. Then he swam slowly 
 around the spot, turned toward the deep, 
 and went his solitary way. 
 
VII 
 
 0N the life of the bass time flies more 
 rapidly than with men. For him one 
 year is as five to man. Five times 
 may the earth revolve around its parent 
 body to age a boy as one revolution ages the 
 fish. 
 
 So with the rolling seasons the fish of 
 our school rapidly matured. At five years 
 they were transformed from the little 
 quarter-inch wrigglers to mature specimens, 
 comparable in age to men of twenty-five. 
 
 Not, of course, that all were the same size. 
 Among men the question is often asked as 
 to how large a bass of five years really is. 
 As if an answer could be given! At six 
 
 71 
 
72 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 months the average may run around six 
 inches ; at the Neosho station a bass known 
 to be under eighteen months of age was 
 found to weigh one pound nine and three- 
 quarter ounces. 
 
 But who would ask how large men are at 
 twenty-five? The question could be put 
 but not answered ; for men vary in size and 
 weight. Some are tall, others short; some 
 fat, others skinny; some big, others small. 
 To strike an average would be to exclude 
 all. 
 
 It is even so with bass. In some Southern 
 waters they have weighed at maturity as 
 much as twenty-three pounds. The coun- 
 try over they vary as men vary. But in 
 Lone Pine he was a big bass that at five 
 years should tip the scales at seven pounds. 
 
 Not that all the members of our school 
 ever reached maturity. A table of vital 
 statistics among men will show that of one 
 hundred thousand children of ten years, 
 ninety-six thousand two hundred and 
 eighty-five live to reach fifteen, ninety-three 
 thousand three hundred and sixty-two reach 
 nineteen, and only eight hundred and forty- 
 seven reach ninety. 
 
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 73 
 
 So time ravages a school of fish, save that 
 with them we have illustration of nature's 
 vast design to perpetuate the species. For 
 she has so fixed it that the more hazardous 
 the infancy of a species the more numerous 
 is the progeny to begin with. The average 
 American family is 2.5, but human infants 
 are protected, so that the species may keep 
 alive on such a slender birth rate. 
 
 But, what with the storm and the snake, 
 the turtle and the pickerel, the frog and 
 the hawk, the muskrat and the fisherman, 
 the infancy of the fish is beset with peril. 
 But nature provides for this by a more pro- 
 lific birth rate. The carp deposits her eggs 
 promiscuously, and without parental care 
 they drift as the sport of the waters and the 
 food of water life; but she lays as high as 
 seven hundred thousand eggs, so that with 
 all the hazards the species multiplies. The 
 infancy of the bass being less perilous, ten 
 thousand eggs per spawn are sufficient to 
 keep the species alive. But even so, all life 
 presents a fierce struggle of life with death. 
 Time has taken the ten thousand eggs of 
 the mother of our school and winnowed 
 them till at five years there are but nineteen 
 
74 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 left. But of these nineteen Old Black Bass 
 is undisputed ruler. His is a body of iron, 
 black and tremendously strong. And of 
 disposition he is indescribably bold. 
 
 To the contemplative eye he would sug- 
 gest the weight of seven pounds. His thick- 
 ness, being one third of his length, gave him 
 an unwieldy appearance that deceived the 
 eye as to his real agility. Up on his flat 
 back the nine spines of his dorsal flared like 
 sharp bayonets, tapered by the thirteen rays 
 behind. 
 
 His great body was marked by a delicate 
 lateral line, the fish's sense for locating the 
 direction of shocks and for gauging the 
 depth of water by its pressure. From gill 
 to tail along this line were twenty-three 
 rows of scales, seven above and sixteen be- 
 low, and in each row were sixty-eight scales 
 — dark scales glossy from an internal oint- 
 ment, scales that flashed and glistened, an 
 exoskeleton of protection. 
 
 His head was the head of a fighter: cheek 
 armored by ten rows of glistening scales; 
 maxillary cleaving the head ; mouth gleam- 
 ing with cruel teeth ; and cold, lidless eyes 
 filled with brooding — eyes through which 
 
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 75 
 
 he surveyed the world with a boldness that 
 challenged everything and bowed to noth- 
 ing! 
 
 Many were the factors that had fashioned 
 him: physical heredity that had endowed 
 him with measureless vigor, power that had 
 awakened and nourished the sense of despot- 
 ism, jealousy of Leaper that had soured him, 
 defeat by the great bass that had em- 
 bittered him. But at five years he swam at 
 the head of his school, feared by many and 
 hated by all. 
 
 Leaper feared him not. And while of 
 slighter build and less treacherous disposi- 
 tion, he nevertheless was fish enough to give 
 full account of himself in any encounter. 
 And the encounter came on a morning in 
 early May. 
 
 Sober was tired and thin from the winter. 
 With the school she was as yet almost too 
 tired and listless to try for food. Leaper 
 had foraged afar and with good success. 
 Voracious as he was, his appetite was satis- 
 fied. But near the pickerel weed off shore 
 he ran down a frog, and with it in his 
 mouth approached Sober. In front of her 
 he dropped it for her to eat. It was an act 
 
76 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 similar to that of the rooster when he calls 
 his hens to a morsel of his finding. 
 
 With a kindly flap of the tail, Sober made 
 for it, pathetically grateful to Leaper. But 
 ere she could get it Old Black Bass rushed 
 in and gobbled it down. 
 
 It was too much even for Leaper. His 
 position was similar to that of a suitor whose 
 offering to his lady has been ruthlessly 
 thrown out by an angry rival, and that be- 
 fore the lady's very eyes. 
 
 Sober dropped back, a questioning eye 
 on Leaper. The others saw the act and 
 closed in, curious as to the probable effect 
 Old Black Bass, by his attitude of raw dis- 
 dain, fanned the incident to open insult. He 
 craved a break with Leaper. 
 
 To Leaper it was more an affair of prin- 
 ciple than a personal affront. He had been 
 doing a good deed and his work had been 
 broken in upon by selfishness. All the 
 altruism born within him rose to the con- 
 flict. 
 
 The others sensed the impending strug- 
 gle, for they remained near to watch. 
 Nervousness was the portion of many; yet 
 not a few meant to watch for signs that Old 
 
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 77 
 
 Black Bass was weakening, when they 
 would join in and even old scores against 
 him. 
 
 Old Black Bass struck first, his pale, near- 
 sighted eyes eager at the prospect. Mouth 
 closed he thrust his hard snout against 
 Leaper's side. The scales along the lateral 
 line gave way at the impact, and red wound 
 showed dull beneath it. 
 
 Dorsal spines sharp drawn, Leaper 
 lurched sidewise and brought the needle 
 points tearing across the great fishes belly. 
 Small, fine scales silvered the water. 
 
 Angered at this vicious thrust. Old Black 
 Bass charged mouth open, and his wicked 
 teeth dragged Leaper's gill slits above the 
 red blood vessels. He checked himself, 
 only to receive in return a heavy thrust from 
 Leaper's head. 
 
 The first recklessness passed, the two 
 settled down to a struggle of attrition. 
 There were maneuvers for advantage, skill- 
 ful retreats, deft feints, bold rushes, supple 
 thrusts, wicked slashes; and again the 
 maneuver for advantage. 
 
 But from the first the outcome was deter- 
 mined. No fish in the school could stand 
 
78 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 against Old Black Bass. And with fierce 
 satisfaction he had known this from the 
 beginning. 
 
 But as the struggle dragged out, this 
 satisfaction dwindled. Of what value the 
 victory to him when it would occasion only 
 regret among his kind? And how could he 
 boast of it, when in his heart he knew he 
 was in the wrong? For he did know this. 
 The altruistic instinct is born within the 
 fish, and he knows when he is violating it. 
 
 At first he had thought that this mattered 
 but little; that only the conquest counted. 
 But as the fight waged and he fought with 
 success more and more assured, it came over 
 him that victory would mean defeat. It 
 would make him more than ever an outcast. 
 And what is triumph with no one to rejoice? 
 
 But more than this came to him. He saw 
 that Leaper was right and he was wrong; 
 he sensed a greater than he before him, 
 though the greater was weaker. Never — 
 suddenly and clearly he knew it — could he 
 hope to be Leaper's equal, though he should 
 conquer him. For while he was an indi- 
 vidualist, wrecking for his own pleasure, 
 Leaper was defending the principle of 
 
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 79 
 
 altruism which the ages had taught his 
 kind. 
 
 Nor was this championing of altruism 
 remarkable. It was as surely instinct with- 
 in as the fighting tendency, though it was 
 social. And because Old Black Bass had 
 the social instinct in sufficient degree to 
 enable him to appreciate this, he now under- 
 stood that Leaper was greater than he, for 
 he was defending the principles the ages 
 had taught him.^ 
 
 Of a sudden Leaper drove home a barb 
 that tore cruelly, and at the pain Old Black 
 Bass felt not so much anger as queer pleas- 
 ure. He was sick of the role of the bully, 
 sick of the rule of force, sick of hard glances, 
 sick of Gloria's loathing. This fierce stab 
 of pain was about what he deserved, and 
 the fact that he was getting it gave him 
 fierce satisfaction. 
 
 In the human realm a man may in his 
 high selfishness turn his back on the friend- 
 liness of home and wander in a far country. 
 But in time he drains life to the dregs and 
 by the swineherd remembers his father's 
 house. So Old Black Bass had ramped 
 
 ^Confer Jordaa*s Fithesy p. 4off., for dwcusiion of the instincts offish. 
 
8o OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 through life with thought of self alone, only 
 to sense vaguely now that real contentment 
 is bound up with friendliness of his kind. 
 Without this friendliness he should lose his 
 life, even though he save it 
 
 Leaper was coming at him when this 
 lonely realization rose to trouble him; 
 Leaper loved of his kind, Leaper fighting 
 to the death for principle not so much of 
 value to himself as to his species. But even 
 as he came the grim light of his eye faded 
 to weariness. His mouth sagged, and the 
 torn gill slit quivered in fatigue. 
 
 It was here that Old Black Bass sur- 
 rendered. Instead of pressing his advan- 
 tage he exposed himself to attack. But 
 Leaper was too wearied to note it. Wearily 
 he turned on his side, then desperately 
 righted himself. The sympathy of the 
 school went out to him, and as one they 
 rose against Old Black Bass. They had 
 not understood, of course, the awakening 
 that had come over him. They knew only 
 that he was killing their comrade. So they 
 swarmed about him, buffeting him without 
 mercy, rushing him fiercely; and drove him 
 unresisting from the school. 
 
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 8i 
 
 By a great ledge of rock far out in the 
 lake he found a sanctuary. Remorse was 
 his, the first he had ever known. And lone- 
 liness. Now it was denied him, he coveted 
 the company of his kind. The friendly 
 school dashes through the darkening waters, 
 little acts denoting understanding and help- 
 fulness — for all these a Voice cried out 
 within him, an old Paleolithic voice that 
 surged and troubled. 
 
 Blindly he made his way back toward the 
 school. Leaper was in the midst of it, 
 object of solicitude from Gloria, subject 
 of sympathy from all. When Old Black 
 Bass entered the outer fringe, they surveyed 
 him with resentment and renewed loathing. 
 Dorsal spines flared on many backs, expect- 
 ant of attack. 
 
 But he struck not. He had learned that 
 it is not by might or power, blustering or 
 force, but by a kindly spirit that the world 
 is gained. And realizing this, he coveted 
 nothing more than a chance to let his fel- 
 lows see that at last he understood. 
 
 Chances came. A school of shiners was 
 encountered, and he held back till the 
 others had fed. Hot sun beat upon the 
 
82 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 waters, and there was scarce room in the 
 shade of the rock for all. But he allowed 
 them to take the better places. A turtle 
 dropped among them, sliding from the 
 stone, and with vigor he drove it away. A 
 muskrat roiled the water about them till 
 it felt the sudden thrust of his body. 
 
 And these things he did from day to day, 
 still unobtrusive, humble, and with ques- 
 tioning. And in time the attitude toward 
 him mellowed. Even fish despise not the 
 broken and contrite spirit. Glances of 
 anger changed to wonder, wonder to eager- 
 ness, and eagerness to understanding. A 
 place, small at first but increasingly large, 
 he was making for himself in the affections 
 of his kind. 
 
 With one exception. Clumsy was like 
 some people: he interpreted all nonresist- 
 ance as cowardice. So when he saw the 
 change in Old Black Bass he thought it 
 fear. He thought the conflict with Leaper 
 had tamed him to unwilling but discreet 
 submission. When the big fish persisted in 
 keeping his humble place, Clumsy went 
 back to annoy him forward in hope of pro- 
 voking a fight. He even dared once himself 
 
A PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE 83 
 
 to rush Old Black Bass, hoping to win re- 
 pute for valor for doing it. And when he 
 encountered patience, his daring increased : 
 he tried to chase the big fellow from the 
 school. 
 
 But Old Black Bass bore it all without 
 flare of resentment. At times he even wel- 
 comed it, as giving chance to discipline his 
 wild nature. Only once did he come near 
 forgetting himself. Clumsy snatched a 
 shiner from Old Black Bass that the latter 
 was turning about to swallow head-first, 
 and this was done in the presence of Gloria. 
 It was open and flagrant insult. The great 
 dorsal flared like bristles on the back of an 
 Airedale. Opening jaws exposed gleaming 
 teeth; there was movement of gathering 
 muscles over the big body. 
 
 But he subsided, the anger leaving him. 
 And instead of sensing his danger, Clumsy 
 concluded that henceforth he could do any- 
 thing with impunity. In this conclusion, 
 though he knew it not at the time, he was 
 unwise, as time would tell. 
 
 On a day the school was foraging down 
 near the great dyke when it encountered a 
 bass from a strange school — a wanderer, 
 
84 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 lost after a wild hour with an angler — a 
 female of four years, graceful and comely. 
 She joined the school with the eagerness of 
 loneliness, and seeing the great and kindly 
 bass, swam to him at once. 
 
 Her whole manner toward him was of 
 admiration and respect. She touched his 
 side gently and waited, fanning with tawny 
 pelvic fins. This was the first real friendli- 
 ness Old Black Bass had ever encountered, 
 directed at himself alone. It stirred some- 
 thing deep within him. As if afraid of the 
 ridicule of the school he looked quickly 
 about him, but he saw only sympathy. 
 
 He turned to the stranger, and she was 
 stranger no longer. Her glance was so 
 direct and open, her movement so ingenu- 
 ously appealing, that from that hour she 
 became Friendly, and by that name was 
 ever known. Taking her place beside Old 
 Black Bass, the school went leisurely 
 through the sparkling waters. 
 
VIII 
 
 0HE mating season of the fifth yearl 
 Spring called forth the change. A 
 mild pressure of roe caused the 
 females to respond in subtle manner to the 
 advances of the males, while males courted 
 with all the gallantry and persistence of 
 their kind. 
 
 Their color had changed. It was the 
 nuptial coloration that deepens the red 
 bird's wing and touches the throat of the 
 robin. The heads of the male bass turned a 
 darker hue, while the exoskeleton was of 
 richer polish. Lateral lines sprayed mucous 
 gloss over their bodies till they were sleek 
 as a trotter fresh from the brush and rub. 
 
 85 
 
86 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 Nature has provided the bass with three 
 kinds of coloration: the protective, which 
 makes him dark on back and light on belly. 
 Seen from above, dark objects in water 
 blend almost indistinguishably with their 
 medium, so the bass's dark back shields him 
 from fish hawk's keen eye ; while from be- 
 low him and looking up all objects appear 
 lighter. Thus his belly blends him with 
 his environment like a chameleon. Then 
 there is the sex coloration, which produces 
 the darker male and the lighter female. 
 But finally is the nuptial change which 
 comes at mating time. It was this which 
 now touched Gloria and Gay and Friendly 
 and their sisters with a rare pale silver as 
 alluring to the males as maiden's shy blush 
 is to the eager eyes of her lover. 
 
 Unlike the viviparous white perch, which 
 carries her young in her body as do the 
 higher mammals, the bass are oviparous. 
 First the roe, then the eggs, next the tiny 
 spawn, and last the school. So the fish 
 paired and went their nesting way as man 
 and maiden pair to build the home. 
 
 There was no hesitation now. Old Black 
 Bass and Friendly went together, she 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER 87 
 
 proudly happy, he in high protective eager- 
 ness, swinging with a vast confidence and 
 show of power, though his force was now 
 tempered with kindliness. 
 
 Friendly had not known him in his days 
 of surliness, so she looked for nothing but 
 good in him, and, looking, found it. He 
 was model. Never had male guarded nest 
 with more jealous care. 
 
 A picnicking party was on shore one day; 
 and a boy of ten was allowed to go in the 
 water. His course took him within sight 
 of Friendly's nest, and his curiosity took 
 him further. He waded toward it. 
 
 Old Black Bass watched him approach 
 with growing apprehension. Friendly 
 swam nearer as if to seek his protection. 
 The boy kept on. The water was too deep 
 for him to reach the nest, but the bass did 
 not know this. He was already too near 
 for them. 
 
 Old Black Bass began swimming nerv- 
 ously back and to, back and to, like the 
 ceaseless padding of a caged leopard. His 
 aspect was fierce. The boy was dropping 
 his hand into the water and catching up 
 handfuls scattering it like a sower his seed. 
 
88 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 This especially gave Old Black Bass con- 
 cern. The drops fell on the surface and 
 disturbed it, rolling like white diamonds 
 dangerously near the nest. 
 
 For Old Black Bass the hand became an 
 instrument of danger. He approached it 
 and receded, threshed the water near it, 
 tried to frighten it away. He was not suc- 
 cessful. But he did not flee. Instead he 
 did a thing which many bass at mating time 
 have been known to do. He rushed the 
 hand, leaped clear of the water, and struck 
 it. 
 
 The great surging body and the impact 
 frightened the boy, and he turned and went 
 back; while Old Black Bass dropped down 
 in rejoicing. His reward came when 
 Friendly slipped up to him and touched his 
 side with her lips. 
 
 But he was to be called on still further 
 to protect his nest and his mate. Only the 
 next day a great water snake slid out over 
 the bottom in search of fish eggs. It was 
 three feet and one inch from fang to tail; 
 and during the years of its life had many 
 times glided over clean-fanned spawn beds 
 and gorged. 
 
"Old Black Bass steeled his mighty heart for the conflict. 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER 89 
 
 Old Black Bass saw it coming, and the 
 fear that is within man for the reptile filled 
 him with nausea, for the snake is ancient 
 enemy to the fish: fish that have survived 
 have feared and fought it; those without 
 fear of it succumbed to its treachery. The 
 result is a snake-hating species. Involun- 
 tarily Old Black Bass felt the scales of his 
 cheek crawl loathsomely, yet he did not flee. 
 
 Other bass have done what he did that 
 day^; but no amount of repetition would 
 make the feat less heroic. The snake was 
 three times the length of Old Black Bass, 
 and wise and fearless with years. It slid 
 toward the nest like a silk line reeled swiftly 
 over the surface — beautifully, with grace- 
 ful undulations. Two inches behind the 
 jaw the body arched, holding the head 
 triumphantly high. 
 
 For the first time in his life Old Black 
 Bass gave ground. Not through fear, for 
 he knew it not. It was an involuntary 
 movement of loathing and repulsion, life's 
 normal shrinking from the snake since the 
 curse w as placed upon it in the Garden. 
 
 iSec volume on ArtifitialFrtpagation of Black Basses^ Crapfits^ and Rock Bass, 
 No. 347, United States Commi8«ion of Fish and Fwheries, for a etatement of black 
 bats killing laake three timet its own length. 
 
90 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 This was his first real bodily encounter 
 with the reptile. But he needed no expe- 
 rience to guide him. The experience of the 
 past was his as a racial habit; and now the 
 Voice of the ages told him what to do. 
 
 The snake reached the nest and slid its flat 
 head over the first stone and sucked up an 
 egg. Lidless eyes flamed with gluttony. 
 Then it sensed Old Black Bass's approach 
 and jerked its head threateningly high. 
 Black tongue licked warning. 
 
 But the big fish's hard maxillary met the 
 sinuous body six inches back of the head and 
 thrust it off the nest. There was lightning- 
 quick contraction and Old Black Bass was 
 wrapped up in the coils of the reptile as a 
 mummy is swathed in bandages. But the 
 slick mucous that covered him now served 
 him well: the very pressure of the snake 
 caused the fish to slip through the coils like 
 an apple seed shot from a youngster's 
 fingers. 
 
 For the first time the snake showed anger 
 and seriousness. Its eyes glowed with 
 wicked determination. Like the hammer of 
 a gun drawn back and then let fall, its 
 muscular body reared up and descended on 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER 91 
 
 the fish, fangs sinking deep. Had it been its 
 cousin the water moccasin, poison would 
 have killed. But the water snake's bite is 
 not poisonous. But the fangs pierced and 
 tore the flesh, and flowing blood dyed the 
 water. 
 
 The conflict drew them too near the nest, 
 and for all he was fighting for his life Old 
 Black Bass was the parent on vigil; he 
 maneuvered the snake away from the bed. 
 To avoid another slash from the fangs he 
 leaped clear of the water. Descending he 
 cut through and attacked. 
 
 Suddenly he knew he would win, and the 
 great joy of the conflict took possession of 
 him. Here at last he could fight without 
 reproach. His great jaws opened and sharp 
 gleaming teeth were bare. Eight inches 
 back of the head he caught the snake and 
 closed down. Giant maxillaries clamped 
 over the body in a vice like the tireless jaws 
 of a bull dog. 
 
 The snake arched its ribs to break the 
 hold, but only was crushed the more; con- 
 tracted to ease the pain, but was pierced 
 near through. There was still length 
 enough to permit strike, and, arching, the 
 
92 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 snake sank its fangs in the fish's side. But 
 a crunching of the great jaws caused it to 
 writhe and loosen. 
 
 It twisted and whipped, its tail out of the 
 water and flailing the surface. But it was 
 done. Fifteen minutes after it had sucked 
 up the first egg its body drifted through the 
 water inert, backbone broken; and Old 
 Black Bass was in his position as outer 
 guard at the nest of Friendly. 
 
 The next day he felt weak. The water 
 he breathed through his gills seemed vapid 
 and unsatisfying. He gulped it, but it 
 passed over his gills like a malarial current. 
 The wounds in his body were not healed by 
 it, but were fretted and aggravated. 
 
 Friendly also was acting queerly, though 
 she had not fought the snake. She wavered 
 over the nest like a minnow in a pail of stale 
 water, gasping, rolling to her side, gulping. 
 A rock bass floated on the surface above, 
 bloated. Perch floated by also, and more 
 rock bass ; a great black bass drifted above 
 them, gulping the air for a time, then died, 
 and its body was washed to the shore where 
 it lay the food of turtles. 
 
 A fever was sweeping the upper lake. 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER 93 
 
 Long it had waged, and at last had reached 
 as far down as the nest of Friendly. It was 
 a fever of poison. Up at the head of the 
 lake was a mine, started two months back 
 by a corporation which sensed the wealth 
 of the hills. 
 
 Poisonous water from this mine ran 
 copper-colored down into the lake. The 
 stones on the surrounding bottom turned 
 brick red. Waters crystal before were now 
 polluted by a pervasive death. The 
 medium which gives life to the fish as air 
 gives it to man was corrupted. They 
 breathed it, but it did not satisfy; gulped it 
 more freely, but the very increase of quan- 
 tity poisoned them the more. 
 
 True fishermen had seen it and com- 
 plained. But the corporation's profit would 
 have been cut one thirtieth of one per cent 
 had the copper-colored poison been di- 
 verted to a cesspool and refined, so it was 
 not done. 
 
 But there was in existence an organiza- 
 tion formed for just such a time as this ; and 
 it took a vigorous hand. The American 
 Game Protective Association was apprised 
 of the situation and acted vigorously and at 
 
94 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 once. Pressure was brought to bear where 
 it would do the most good ; and the flow of 
 brown poison was stopped. 
 
 Old Black Bass did not know who had 
 befriended him ; but the sweet water came 
 again and he breathed it deep. Friendly 
 righted herself and took up again her high 
 vigil above her nest. Dead fish no more 
 floated above them, for Lone Pine had been 
 purified. 
 
 While, of course. Old Black Bass did not 
 know it, yet in the streams of a thousand 
 rivers this poison is let loose through greed; 
 and to the fish hawk and the mink, the 
 muskrat and the snake, the frog and the 
 turtle, is added another enemy of the bass 
 — the enemy of Greed. 
 
 And this enemy, because of its insidious 
 nature and its seeming economic justifica- 
 tion, is the Great Destroyer of the waters. 
 It is the Black Death of the fish. But some 
 day the friend will be as powerful as the 
 foe, and Man will intervene to prevent the 
 extermination of a species. The Spirit of 
 the Fisherman will rejoice to see that good 
 day. 
 
 The little school placed safely, Old 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER 95 
 
 Black Bass and his mate went a-wandering 
 over the lake. One by one they found their 
 kindred, knowing them by various pecu- 
 liarities known among men as "recognition- 
 marks." At such meetings there was 
 general friendliness and pleasure, till 
 Clumsy was found. 
 
 He nosed Old Black Bass insolently, and 
 took up his sport of annoyance. He mis- 
 interpreted the friendly manner with which 
 the big fish allowed him to approach, mis- 
 construing it as timidity. So day after day 
 he kept up his work: asserted his right to 
 best shades, took the food that Old Black 
 Bass would have eaten, disported about 
 him in the presence of the others. It an- 
 noyed Old Black Bass exceedingly. Many 
 times his expression was that of the older 
 dog mussed and wooled by the pup. But 
 he refrained from retaliation. 
 
 But by the end of the week Clumsy was 
 cavorting about Friendly. She took it all 
 good-naturedly; at times flattered by it even 
 as a girl responds to the admiration of a 
 youngster she cares little for. 
 
 Only then did a strange light begin to 
 burn in the red iris of Old Black Bass's eye. 
 
96 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 By threatening movements he tried to give 
 warnings, but Clumsy heeded them not. 
 Rather, he was delighted that at last he had 
 found a vulnerable spot. 
 
 In vain did the big fish try to hold him- 
 self in check. He desired no trouble. But 
 in time his patience gave way. Rising sud- 
 denly he buffeted the astonished Clumsy a 
 full half yard. And before he could re- 
 cover from his amazement he was put upon 
 again. The great tail lashed him ; the heavy 
 head pounded him on the side with the 
 force of a battering ram; cruel teeth 
 gleamed directly before his eyes. For five 
 minutes Old Black Bass was a throw-back, 
 a reversion to his former self, terrible in 
 rage, red-lusting for blood. 
 
 As ever with the coward, Clumsy scam- 
 pered away, crestfallen, outraged. And to 
 his surreptitious bids for sympathy and 
 backing he received only amusement and 
 ridicule. 
 
 Then came the big fish's struggle with 
 the old riverman. A great angler came to 
 Lone Pine and pitched his pup tent up near 
 the inlet. The evening of his arrival he 
 spent sorting his tackle. 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER 97 
 
 He took a reel from a leather pouch and 
 went over it with an oiled cloth ; carefully, 
 lovingly, as though he enjoyed the task. He 
 unscrewed an agate jewel and put a tiny bit 
 of vaseline in the grease cup. A new silk 
 line of dark green he fastened to the spool 
 and turned it carefully on. 
 
 Then he took a steel bait casting rod from 
 its case and ran his eye over the agate 
 leaders; went over it with the oiled cloth 
 till the tapering metal shone like smooth 
 ebony. 
 
 In a small box he found abundance of 
 tackle which he sorted with infinite care. 
 It was the box he had whiled away winter 
 evenings over; and its contents represented 
 his judgment on lures. 
 
 The polished rod and the noiseless-run- 
 ning reel he placed near him, and beside 
 them the selected lures. He drew the fire 
 and turned in till morning. 
 
 At four o'clock he was frying bacon and 
 eggs beside the sputtering coffee pot. His 
 face wore a look of pleased satisfaction, 
 for it was a bass morning. He was alone; 
 clouds were banked in the sky; and the black 
 water spread out before him. Now here, 
 
98 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 now there, was a swirl as a big one struck 
 or a splash as a neighbor leaped. 
 
 Carefully he jointed rod, adjusted reel, 
 and attached a lure. Then he waded waist 
 deep into the water, and cast far out. And, 
 as is so often arranged by Fate, Old Black 
 Bass had chosen that spot for his feeding 
 ground that morning. 
 
 But the canny monster was not fooled by 
 the lure. It was too unwieldy to be mis- 
 taken. Many times in the five years of his 
 life he had seen such plugs in the water. 
 Friendly made for it, but he thrust her 
 aside and she lay low. But Clumsy darted 
 for it, and five minutes later made first 
 catch in a large creel. Old Black Bass was 
 indif^ferent to his going, but he did fidget 
 nervously when Wall-eye connected. The 
 beautiful fish fought bravely, rushing 
 madly, leaping and shaking her head 
 savagely. But she followed Clumsy to the 
 creel. After five years together, they lay 
 at the last in the same creel. 
 
 For a full half hour the lures tantalized 
 the waters. Plugs that swayed and swam 
 and dived and floated and wriggled; 
 feathered lures that ran deep and skimmed 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER 99 
 
 the surface; spoons of brass and glittering 
 silver. Once when a toothsome frog hit the 
 surface and lay kicking there, Old Black 
 Bass felt the hunger urge to strike. But 
 a Voice of caution stayed him. 
 
 But the great angler was clever. He 
 drew in the rejected lure and changed it 
 for a plain hook. This plain hook he in- 
 serted just behind the dorsal fin of a slender 
 shiner. He threw both far to one side, and 
 by clever leading made the minnow swim in 
 a circle about him, but far out. 
 
 Old Black Bass had been waiting for 
 another plug to strike and be drawn straight 
 in. Hanging expectant, he was startled by 
 the till-then-unnoticed approach of this 
 venturesome shiner. It annoyed him to be 
 interrupted. More in annoyance than 
 hunger he struck, caught the hapless 
 minnow and gobbled him down — only to 
 feel a quick decisive jerk, and a sharp stab 
 of pain in his throat. A thin, hard line sawed 
 his mouth and he closed his teeth on it. 
 But the gut leader would not part. 
 
 Immediately he dashed to surface and 
 leaped high, his great head shaking sav- 
 agely. But still the pull shoreward. He 
 
100 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 reared and made for deep, only to be let 
 go. Far out the gentle pull of line brought 
 him up. He darted back, leaped, rushed 
 sidewise; but ever the gentle pressure from 
 the shallows. It was this gentle pull that 
 drove him mad — insinuating, relentless, 
 portentous, inexorable. 
 
 He opened his mouth and let his gills 
 go limp, the while he bucked the pressure. 
 His aesophagus gave, and the hook pulled 
 out to the base of the tongue. Another 
 leap and the hook tore partly out. If the 
 pressure on it were relaxed, letting it slip 
 back slightly, it might come free. But Old 
 Black Bass did not know this. The angler 
 did. 
 
 Vainly he fought, but with growing 
 weariness. Fifteen minutes passed. The 
 pull was drawing him in. But he cared 
 little. Already the objects about him ap- 
 peared dark; already he had ceased to draw 
 the water through his gills. He did little 
 more than flap with caudal in weak effort 
 at resistance. His body was unwieldy, 
 cumbersome, unresponsive. 
 
 He was near the surface. A black 
 shadow loomed up above him; a circular 
 
FISH MEETS CANNY ANGLER loi 
 
 object net-like in structure, lowered and 
 advanced. It sank about him. But at the 
 touch he was terrified. He bounded back 
 like a man who suddenly encounters an un- 
 known object in the dark. Inspired by the 
 blind terror the sudden jerk was of greater 
 force than any he had exerted before. He 
 shot high into the air and turned. The hook 
 slipped back, turned, and passed out over 
 his teeth, leaving him free. 
 
 He zigzagged wearily back to Friendly. 
 
IX 
 
 LD BLACK BASS and Friendly 
 swam side by side like boy and girl 
 strolling down a maple-shaded road. 
 Behind them like the spread of a fan the 
 others followed. A month had passed 
 since the affair with the angler; and Old 
 Black Bass had fully recovered. The hook 
 wound had troubled him, but clean waters 
 had soothed it to healing. 
 
 He was well. Never in his years had 
 the full tide of life so pounded through 
 him. Energy was in his muscles, clean 
 power in the arch of his head ; and he swam 
 by Friendly with an easy confidence that 
 suggested and dominated and triumphed. 
 
 102 
 
THE BATTLERS 103 
 
 They were going to the head of the lake. 
 Inlet waters called them, cold stone-harried 
 waters from the hills. For up at the inlet 
 were the shiners, up where the current 
 pushed them from the river nooks to the 
 open lake. 
 
 Just how Old Black Bass and his school 
 knew the head waters of the lake provided 
 the best foraging spot no man may know. 
 Perhaps a sense of direction perceived by 
 the lateral line told them, perhaps the faint 
 current created by the running water as it 
 swept into the lake. But it might have 
 been a Voice, an old Paleozoic urge that 
 turned them to feeding-ground as the an- 
 adromous salmon is lured up the cascading 
 river. 
 
 On they swam, past old foundations 
 where homes had once stood, up hollows 
 where in the lush of the olden days the 
 cattle had browsed, around the mellowed 
 roots of old forest trees, past great bowlders. 
 Now the water was dark, now lighted by 
 the glimmer of the sun on the surface. 
 
 In time they approached the prime feed- 
 ing-ground. But while yet afar off their 
 sense of pressure apprised them of the 
 
I04 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 presence of other life in the vicinity. Faint 
 shocks, vague stirrings of the water, slight 
 wavelets on the distant surface all informed 
 them that the proposed spot was already- 
 occupied. 
 
 They drew nearer; then saw. The 
 pickerel were there. Long they were and 
 pale. Where the bass were short and dark 
 and thick, the pickerel were very light, 
 almost white, and their bodies were long 
 and slender. Their heads were pointed and 
 shapely, fins of silken softness, and their 
 movements lithe and graceful as the ges- 
 tures of exquisite dancers. 
 
 As Old Black Bass led his school up to 
 them the pickerel ceased movement. Two 
 families of the Pisces faced each other in 
 the quiet waters of Lone Pine. Two groups 
 of implacable foes, for between the bass and 
 the pickerel is ancient enmity; a great 
 hatred that abates not, neither is forgotten. 
 And whenever they meet is war. 
 
 But even the eye of hate may not be too 
 blind, nor could it fail to concede a certain 
 respect for the pale giants. They were 
 lords. They were fighters as fierce and 
 bold as the bass. They feared nothing save 
 
THE BATTLERS 105 
 
 man. Their grace and beauty masked a 
 nature subtle as the serpent, patient as the 
 setter, and terrible as the cougar. 
 
 It was fitting that in Old Black Bass's 
 career he should face this ancient foe. The 
 highest selection of his own race, a fitting 
 survival of all the Micropterus Salmoides 
 that had gone before, it was meet that he as 
 the representative of his line should stand 
 against this primordial contender. 
 
 Nor did the giant leader of the pickerel 
 school seem dismayed at the prospect. 
 He waited expectant, motionless save for 
 gentle swaying of paired fins, lidless eyes 
 unwavering, an antagonist that should ask 
 no quarter and give none. 
 
 Among primitive men leaders alone 
 fought first. Thus not the army behind 
 him, but Goliath alone stalked forth to con- 
 tend with Israel's choicest. So now Old 
 Black Bass moved past his school and stood 
 out solitary as the representative of his kind. 
 And by silken movement of his tail the 
 giant pickerel advanced a foot. 
 
 The voices of the past whispered wisdom 
 to Old Black Bass, speaking gently as a 
 coach calls directions to his nine. Whis- 
 
io6 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 pered the tactics of the pickerel, how he 
 fights subtly, employing cunning, tries ex- 
 haustion as himself having measureless en- 
 durance, playing about his antagonist with 
 lithe body till he is too wearied to resist, 
 then closing for the slaughter. 
 
 The awareness of these voices was Old 
 Black Bass's superior advantage. They put 
 at his disposal the wisdom of the past. His 
 was an organism of superior endowment, 
 quick insight, subtle intuition, unerring 
 judgment, gigantic strength. 
 
 So now instead of lunging recklessly and 
 wearing himself out, after the manner of 
 his kind, he came warily, craftily. But he 
 advanced joyfully. This was his great 
 chance. Here was occasion when he could 
 place at the service of his beloved school 
 the last full measure of his new devotion. 
 Should each school attack the other, many 
 would slip into the great Darkness that 
 day and float belly-up to the shore. But 
 should he contend and win, his kind would 
 live. It was his opportunity to atone for 
 the past, to make up to the school for those 
 thoughtless years of selfishness and cruelty. 
 
 His eye ran over the great pickerel from 
 
THE BATTLERS 107 
 
 head to tail, taking in the long mouth filled 
 with twin rows of sharp, cruel teeth; the 
 pink gills vibrating gracefully in the water ; 
 the long pale body, dark at the top, lighter 
 on the belly, streaked with faint lines of 
 light blue ; the fins small and fanning ; down 
 to the long forked tail. Old Black Bass 
 noted all, and with a suggestion of infinite 
 patience and cunning slowly approached. 
 
 This was unusual, as the pickerel had 
 expected a lunge, a quick stop, and a stab 
 at his belly by the long bayonet of the dorsal 
 fin. But this did not happen. Old Black 
 Bass was heeding the voices of the past, and 
 fighting the pickerel with his own cunning. 
 Back and to, here and there, now above, 
 now below, driving, backing, churning, he 
 annoyed the pickerel with a patience that 
 was tireless. And ever was the cold look 
 in his eye as of one biding his time. 
 
 But never had he encountered so near an 
 equal. Twice the pointed mouth of the 
 long fish opened and closed with snap of 
 rage, annoyance doubling the fury of the 
 strike. But for most part he too was patient, 
 ominous, confident, maneuvering for posi- 
 tion whence he might strike with decisive 
 
io8 OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 consequence. He swam low, to leave no 
 room beneath him for the bayonet thrust 
 of dorsal. 
 
 He drew first blood. From behind he 
 scraped forward and with needle teeth 
 raked the vulnerable gills. One gave way 
 and parted, hanging like a frayed line. It 
 was a dangerous thrust. The supple body 
 then turned and danced bewilderingly 
 about. Triumph showed in every move- 
 ment. 
 
 But Old Black Bass gave absolutely no 
 sign. He was unconcerned, seemingly in- 
 different to the pain. With cold purpose- 
 fulness he followed the agile monster. He 
 backed, charged with unexpected and tell- 
 ing ferocity, and struck the pickerel over 
 the air bladder. The finger-shaped lung re- 
 coiled at the impact, staggering the sur- 
 prised fish. 
 
 Then both accelerated the pace. The 
 pickerel struck like the release of a coiled 
 spring, leaped high and descending drag- 
 ged again at the vulnerable gills. For just 
 as in fighting, one dog tries for the throat 
 and another for the foot, so the great pick- 
 erel aimed for the most alarming spot of 
 
THE BATTLERS 109 
 
 all, the gills. For this reason he was the 
 Killer, so known of his school. 
 
 But Old Black Bass kept on. Back and 
 forth he followed the agile Killer, lidless 
 eyes unwavering. He bore the thrusts with- 
 out sign, received the blows with no dimin- 
 ishing of his watchfulness. 
 
 The voices had told him what to do, 
 though he had never done it before. And 
 he was awaiting opportunity to obey them. 
 Sooner or later he knew the opening would 
 come. 
 
 But it must hurry. Already two gill 
 slits hung like frayed strings at his cheek. 
 Already red wound clung welt-like to his 
 side. And still the Killer charged. His 
 movements seemed effortless, his endurance 
 unbelievable. More than once Old Black 
 Bass felt his nerves on the point of snapping 
 before the ubiquitous white streak and his 
 endless motion. 
 
 But he endured. It was the greatest fight 
 that ever was waged or ever should be 
 fought again. And the outcome would be 
 of greater significance than either of the two 
 fish dreamed. For it would answer the 
 question among men often asked, as to 
 
no OLD BLACK BASS 
 
 whether the bass or the pickerel shall be the 
 dominant game fish of the American waters. 
 This test was typical, representative of the 
 two races, symbolical of the group struggle 
 that in the years to come would end the 
 dominance of one and establish the other. 
 
 Friendly saw the wounds of her mate 
 and was distressed. She would have inter- 
 vened had nature not bade otherwise. 
 Leaper would have gone in now and thrown 
 his unwearied spirit into the struggle, but 
 he knew it was not so to be. 
 
 From beneath the Killer clamped his 
 plierlike jaws about Old Black Bass's body 
 just back of the anal, and the grip held. 
 The big bass lashed his body furiously to 
 break it, but the supple pickerel snapped 
 back and to at the lashings like the cracker 
 of a whip. But it was a body wound alone, 
 and pierced no viscera or vital organ. He 
 loosed his hold to snap higher up on the 
 belly, as a dog will loose to catch deeper. 
 But the instant the jaws slackened Old 
 Black Bass wrenched free. 
 
 One of the pickerel's long teeth caught 
 in the heavy skin. He was lifted high be- 
 fore he could free himself. And with the 
 
THE BATTLERS ni 
 
 Killer above him, the Voices told Old Black 
 Bass that the time had come. He rose 
 quicker than the eye could follow, reared 
 and raked his sawlike dorsal down the pick- 
 erel's belly. 
 
 Small white scales like tiny flecks of 
 crystal silvered the water. Red gash 
 opened the pickerel's body, exposing the 
 viscera. Water rushed into the cavity. He 
 whirled belly-up like an overturned canoe. 
 
 The fight was over. 
 
 For a moment the other bass of the school 
 were motionless. They were still under the 
 spell of the great conflict. But when Old 
 Black Bass dropped wearily down, there 
 was awakening: opening and closing of 
 gills like a deep sigh; movement of relief; 
 glances toward the great fish that conveyed 
 sympathy and gratitude. 
 
 He was gory, scarred, and weary. But 
 Friendly swam up to him, and like a blush- 
 ing maiden leading scarred but victorious 
 gladiator from an old Roman arena, she 
 squared her body with his and swam 
 proudly by his side to the deep.