ELEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 23 
trout, and I am of the opinion of Mr. Page that it will be well 
to go slow until we know more. The fish came in witha hur- 
rah and everybody seems to want it. It grows fast and may 
supplant our native trout entirely, and to my liking the latter 
is the best fish and the handsomest of the two. Imported spe- 
cies often thrive and drive out native ones; witness the so-called 
Norway rat, which has supplanted the native until the latter is 
extinct on the seacoast, and even in parts of the West. An im- 
ported species often grows faster in its new home than it did in 
its original one, as witness the German carp in America. I am 
not prepared to say much of the rainbow trout ; I have watched 
it with interest in ponds, but do not know how it will agree in 
streams with the native. [If it grows faster, it will get all the 
food and the native will suffer. In that case ]am opposed to 
it. If it will live in streams where the native will not, then it 
may be a good thing. We now have the curse of sparrows up- 
on us, brought about by enthusiastic introducers of foreign 
species, and with this example of mistaken benevolence before 
us, I think we should be cautious. 
Mr. Biackrorp.—I do not yet know what value the rainbow 
trout will bear in the market. When it first comes in it will sell 
readily to those desiring to experiment. After that it will rest 
on its merits. I have no fear that it will supplant the /fovztnalts 
on the table of the epicure. Mr. B. B. Redding, Fish Commis- 
sioner of California, writes me that the Humboldt River trout, 
Salmo clarkii, is much superior to the S. zvzdea, or rainbow trout. 
The Californians are now introducing our Eastern brook trout 
into their streams, and are loud in their praises of it. 
Mr. Puituips.-—Might the rainbow trout not follow the rule 
that all the Salmonide of the Pacific coast are inferior to those 
of the Atlantic coast? I believe that I have understood Mr. 
Blackford to assert that the Pacific salmon are inferior to ours. 
Mr. BLrackrorp.—They are. They may grow faster than our 
Eastern coast fishes, but California salmon are not so good. 
When they first began to send them here they sold car loads of 
