juxe 1899] FRESH-WATER BIOLOGICAL STATIONS 45 1 



of the principal results obtained was published in No. 6 of the Bulletin 

 already referred to (23). 1 



During the same year, Prof. C. D. Marsh commenced (following 

 up some preliminary work of the previous year), his systematic in- 

 vestigations on the limnetic Crustacea of Green Lake in Wisconsin (14). 

 Prof. E. A. Birge also started his elaborate " Plankton Studies " on 

 Lake Mendota in the same State (1). Although in these cases the 

 observations were not carried out by means of a formal biological 

 station, the work done has been essentially such as would occupy 

 such a station, and in fact the position of the University of Wisconsin 

 on the shore of Lake Mendota enabled Prof. Birge to have all the 

 advantages of a biological station without the trouble of specially 

 organising one for his research. The important results of Prof. 

 Birge's work have been already alluded to in this Journal. (See Nat. 

 Sci. vol. xii. pp. 295-6.) 



But the most notable event of the year 1894 was the establish- 

 ment, by the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, in conjunc- 

 tion with the University of Illinois, of a biological station at Havana 

 on the Illinois Paver, under the direction of Prof. S. A. Forbes. This 

 station took the form of a large floating laboratory, affording working- 

 accommodation for about twenty persons. It was specially built for 

 the purpose it has to fulfil at a cost of $1,255, and it has been 

 equipped with all kinds of collecting and other appliances used in 

 biological investigations. As regards literature, the station is able to 

 draw upon the library of the State Laboratory of Natural History, 

 which is exceedingly well supplied with works on fresh-water animals 

 and plants. Besides the floating laboratory, a small steam-launch also 

 forms part of the station equipment, together with a number of row- 

 boats (4 and 11). 



The district worked by the Illinois station, viz. the Illinois Elver 

 near Havana, and the lakes, ponds, and swamps immediately connected 

 therewith, appears to be an extremely interesting one from the bio- 

 logical point of view, and a considerable amount of valuable investiga- 

 tion has already been carried out by the station staff and visiting- 

 naturalists. The general object has been to study the forms of life, 

 both animal and vegetable, in all their stages, of a great river 

 system. It would be absolutely impossible, in an article of this kind, 

 to allude in detail to all the results which have followed from the 

 establishment of the station. Some have been noted from time to 

 time in Natural Science, but a few indications may also be given here 

 of the kind of work that has been done. 



From the very first, quantitative collections of the plankton 

 organisms have been made at regular intervals from certain selected 



1 A biological survey of Lake Erie, supplementing the work done on Michigan and St. 

 Clair, was undertaken last year under the auspices of the U.S. Commission of Fish and 

 Fisheries, but no results have yet been published. 



