BASSE, Labraz, a genus of sea-fishes of the perch (q.v.) family, distinguished from the true perches (Ivrea) by having the tongue covered with small teeth. The species are found on the shores both of Europe and America. The only British one is the common B. (L. biptla), a fish which in its fins, scales, etc., much resembles a perch, but has a more elongated and salmon-like form. It is pretty abundant on some parts of the British coasts. and is not nufrequently taken by angling from the rocks, or by small seine-nets on sandy- shores; often, also, by the hand-line and by the long line. It is a strong,. active fish, and was well known to the ancients; labrax is its Greek name; the Romans called it lupus (i.e., wolf), from its remarkable voracity. It is much esteemed for the table. It sometimes attains as large size. 15 lbs. or more in weight, but is generally much smaller.
It not unfrequentiv ascends rivers to same distance, and the experiment of keeping it in a fresh-water pond has even been tried with suecess.—The striped B., or rock-fish of the United States (L, lineatus), very nearly resembles the common B., but attains a larger size, and is marked by seven or eight longitudinal black lines. The name stone B. is given to the polyprion cernium, a fish very rare on the coasts of Britain, but abundant in more southern parts of the Atlantic ocean, ns far as the cape of Good Hope, and found on the American coasts and in the Mediterranean. In general appearance it resembles the comnion perch more nearly than the B., but differs from both in having only a single elongated dorsal fin. It sometimes follows ships of which the bottom is covered with barnacles, is easily taken, and is esteemed excellent for the table.