THE CANVAS-BACK 177 



full headway as they pass, and go from sixty to ninety 

 miles an hour, and (before the wind) it may be faster. 

 In Oregon the canvas-backs are highly prized. In a 

 recent article, " Duck-shooting along the Columbia," 

 Mr. J. B. Thompson says : " It was the way of the duck 

 hunters to ignore all other ducks, mallards, teal, wid- 

 geon, sprigs, and to confine their shooting entirely to 

 canvas-backs. In a good year, and most years were 

 good, it was not difficult to kill all one could carry. 

 Of late years — since about 1894 to be more exact — can- 

 vas-backs are not as abundant nor as good eating ; the 

 cause being generally attributed, no doubt correctly, 

 to the almost total disappearance of their favorite food 

 the wapato. In an unfortunate moment some impulse, 

 not wholly for good, prompted a certain United States 

 fish commissioner to place in the haunts of the canvas- 

 backs the lowly and inglorious carp. Why this was 

 done no one seems to have ascertained. It could not 

 have been because good fish were lacking, for the 

 Columbia and its tributaries were full of the lordly 

 Chinook salmon and other varieties of the same fish, 

 and the smaller streams were alive with trout. At any 

 rate the carp were brought in, and, like most things 

 undesirable, they stayed and throve prodigiously, and 

 from that time every green and growing thing on the 

 feeding grounds of the ducks began to disappear, until 

 finally, about six years ago, few wapato and very little 

 else which might be classed as food could be found 

 there. The high water of 1894 may have aided the 

 carp by depositing silt and sand over these lakes and 

 ponds. The food being gone the canvas went also ; 

 and the few that are shot now are poor and flavorless." 



