114 Union Bay 



many cases it has replaced trie more popular native varieties. 



Indeed, the history of these fish in the United States has 

 always appeared to me to be a potent argument against the 

 bringing in of foreign species. Excepting for the importation 

 of the European ( Hungarian ) and the chukar partridges and 

 of the ring-necked (Chinese) pheasant, which three are 

 generally conceded to have been unobjectionable, I can 

 think of no other introductions that have not been fruitful 

 of evil. Had the carp been confined to land-locked areas 

 where it could have been absolutely controlled and where 

 native fish did not do well, then it might have been a valu- 

 able contribution to low-cost food. But it possessed the vital- 

 ity and stamina of many imported species and, once put into 

 our waters, it has spread over a vast area where, as it is not 

 well regarded as food and has no beauty or other value, it 

 has become a real pest. Certainly it has no place in the 

 streams of the Pacific Northwest which are capable of rais- 

 ing salmon and trout and bass. Nevertheless, it now infests 

 many such streams. It has not only affected the supply of 

 food for game fish but it has, particularly on the Columbia 

 River, destroyed much bird food. It has the pig-like habit of 

 rooting up the bulbs of certain of the water plants, and to 

 such an extent that, in some localities, the wild fowl have 

 curtailed or ceased their concentrations due to lack of suit- 

 able food, plentiful before the arrival of the carp. 



This is but one illustration of the folly of unwise intro- 

 ductions, a practice which has been followed by national ill 

 results. The shipping of the jack rabbit from the United 

 States to Australia, the muskrat to Austria, and the English 

 sparrow and the starling from England to the United States 

 has had most unfortunate consequences. The gypsy moth, 

 brought from the Old World to America in an unsuccessful 

 attempt to produce silk, ended as a terrific tree pest. The 

 bringing of the coypu from South to North America is a 

 recent event which promises to be a mistake of great im- 



