258 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



figs amongst his Smyrna trees, in order that the female 

 insects might enter the curious hollow flower-cluster of the 

 figs, and in seeking a suitable place for the deposition of 

 their eggs, might dust the seed flowers with pollen, and so 

 cause the "fruit" to set and swell. The results fell as had 

 been hoped : the tiny Fig Insects, imported from Asia Minor, 

 visited and fertilized the hitherto sterile flowers ; the trees, 

 unfruitful for fourteen years, blossomed and were fruitful; 

 and in 1900 a first crop of Smyrna figs, 60 tons in 

 weight, was obtained from a Californian orchard. Here no 

 natural balance has been disturbed, for the introduced insects 

 confine their attention solely to the figs introduced before 

 them, and find in these their natural food, shelter and breed- 

 ing places. 



SOME INTRODUCED FISHES 



In our own country, sport rather than utility has regula- 

 ted the introduction of freshwater fishes (see p. 276), but in 

 other countries they have been introduced towards the end of 

 creating a profitable supply. California has been remark- 

 ably successful in its endeavours to modify its fauna 

 for commercial advantage. Between 1871 and 1880, Mr 

 W. H. Shebley tells us in California Fish and Game for 

 1917, as many as 619,000 Shad fry were imported from a 

 hatchery in New York and turned down in the Sacramento 

 River. As a result, the Shad (Alosa alabamae], a native of 

 the Atlantic coastal waters of America, is now one of the 

 commonest fishes in Californian waters. The introduction 

 of Carp (Cyprinus carpio), a native of the rivers of China, 

 has been equally successful, and this fish "will probably be- 

 come one of the State's most valuable food fishes." It has, 

 moreover, prepared the way for the Black Bass (Micropterus 

 dolomieu\ which feeds upon it, and the successful introduc- 

 tion of which from the rivers east of the Alleghany mountains 

 is regarded as "one of the greatest feats of acclimatisation of 

 new species offish in the history of fish culture." Yet even 

 in successful California, there is a fly in the ointment, for the 

 success of the alien Carp has involved the destruction of the 

 Californian Perch, and the increase of the foreigner has been 

 so phenomenal in the Chatauqua Lake that the water has 

 become fouled and unfit for use. Even the savage Pikes and 



